


I Have Regret

by ProbablyConcerned



Category: Mario & Luigi RPG (Video Games)
Genre: Acceptance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Personal Growth, Regret, redemption arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 41,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22867315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProbablyConcerned/pseuds/ProbablyConcerned
Summary: Fawful has woken up after the events of Bowser's Inside Story. Disoriented, and confused, he tries to figure out what has happened.With great power, comes a great priceAN: **slaps top of my fic** This bitch is officially one year old judging on when I wrote the first chapter in google docs hehe
Comments: 16
Kudos: 88





	1. The Watery Grave of a Narcissist

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

CRASH!

A small bean man floated down the moat of Peach's castle. Glass shards all around his face, shifting down and cutting small holes through his clothes as he unconsciously flowed with the river. He took long, quiet breaths streamed in and out from that still yet living body. He was not awake, and he will not be awake for some time, but when he rises, he will finally learn to mature. He will learn to look at the world around him. He will learn what his actions caused, and how he could've nearly ended that same world. 

Wedged between rocks and land, the beanish man's eyes came open, but he couldn't see. He shook his head, jolting a bit from the quick pain of glass trying to scratch at him as they went down his face. His eyes couldn't help him here. He removed his gloves and began to feel in the shallow water, fingers brushing across pebbles and then up to the damp land, laying his hand onto the blades of grass before stumbling to shore. He picked himself out of the water with difficulty, his weak body barely able to carry him out. breathe in...breathe out…

Now, what happened? The last thing he could remember was fighting with Bowser, he lost. But even that was fuzzy. In fact, everything leading up to absorbing the dark star's power was the only thing that wasn't completely hazy in his memory. Perhaps that's why he was in the moat? But where had his dark power gone? He could feel this emptiness in his heart, like something that had been apart of him had left him, been ripped out of him almost. His brain felt all jumbled as he groaned in pain from the bright light in his eyes that is the sun.

He sat upright, without his glasses he couldn't see anything a few feet in front of him. Was that grey blur in the distance Peach's castle? Why were these trees made of blobby shapes? He shook his head in confusion, trying hard to piece together what happened without the ability to.

"Where...what has befallen Fawful?"


	2. Seeing Things Clearly

It took Fawful about a week of navigating blind, eating whatever it was he found, and listening to the whispers of people around him as he walked before he finally found a town up north from the mushroom kingdom. At least, he thought it was north, because It was a stroke of pure luck that he even found a town at all. He walked around in the town, blind as a bat, until an old woman took pity on the poor man. She walked over, and with her kind, sweet voice asked, "Boy, are you well?" Fawful tried to turn his head in the direction of the talking, his breathing picking up quickly before he swallowed it down. Fawful definitely wasn't feeling like himself, and although that feeling of emptiness was very slowly fading, it still infected his heart with every step. In all honesty, he wanted to tell this old woman all that was bothering him, but he held back.

Fawful pieced together from what he could that his plan probably wasn't successful, but a large part of him didn't want to believe it. How could he, Cackletta's loyal follower, even after her death, have failed? It was preposterous! Despite all logic, he wouldn't be able to bring himself to believe it. "Hello? Fa-" he stopped himself, perhaps the people of this kingdom resented him for his power, he had to quickly come up with a different name! "F-Fabien. Fabien is here...where…where is Fabien?" The kind, old lady turned her head at this man and simply answered "Child can you not see? There's a sign above the town that clearly states where you are. You're in Colline Town" 

Fawful didn't say much after that, but the old woman noticed his squinting and quickly realized that she was right. A small wave of guilt came over her and she gasped at her own rudeness. "Oh my dear, you really cannot see! Hold on, let me take you to an eye doctor, a young boy like you out on your own like this should at least be able to see! Why, an old woman like me would feel horrible if I left you like this!" And Fawful, unable to even begin to detest, was dragged by the arm with the old woman to the eye doctor, or at least, that's where he hoped he was going, and for once, trusting a stranger helped him immensely. The woman was truthful, and did in fact bring him to an eye doctor, where he was evaluated for a new pair of glasses.

With the world clearer than before, it filled him with relief, short lived, but at least he could navigate with ease. The woman invited him for dinner before decided to hit the road again, and Fawful accepted, wanting to take advantage of the free food before taking off on his next plan to seek revenge. However, on his way to her home, Fawful spotted a newspaper, and having been unable to read for a week, the idea excited him as he raced to the bench where the lone newspaper lie. He leaped onto the bench and grinned wide as he opened up to the first page, only for his face to fall at the headline:

MARIO BROS. SAVE MUSHROOM KINGDOM

A few tears began to press against his eyes as blinked them away. He didn't want to look at the horrid paper, but he couldn't look away. It had relayed every painstaking detail about how he had put the world in danger thanks to the help of the Dark Star. He had failed. He failed to gain vengeance. He had put his friend in mortal danger. He had put the castle in mortal danger. He put the world in mortal danger.

No...Fawful only meant to achieve revenge for his fallen Mistress.

Why couldn't he remember half of what was on the paper?


	3. Only Dust Remains

Fawful didn't make it to dinner that night, in fact, he left town before it could've even been considered dinner time. He was racing down the road, clicking dirt up under his heels as he ran. All the pieces were in place for Fawful to figure out what happened and he refused to put the picture together, to look at the completed puzzle he oh so loathed to imagine. His breathing was quick, and he was barely holding it together as he struggled to push his tears down.

He failed his mistress. He failed his minions. He failed Midbus, and he failed himself. Not only that, but his actions threatened to destroy the world he seemed to capture for Cackletta. He wasn't a great leader. He was barely even worthy of the title of lackey. Fawful couldn't hold power on his own without it backfiring and burning his eyes with smoke. The well oiled machine of vengeance that Fawful had taken his time so meticulously building had fallen apart. What was he to do now? 

He was weak. Fawful always knew he was weak, but it was breaking his heart into pieces. Now that there was nothing he could do to remedy his situation, knowing that he had been so weak as to not even predict or protect anyone from the consequences of his actions, it made him sick to his stomach.

He began to slow down, tired from all the running. Tired from being weak. Tired from this horrid feeling in his stomach. Tired from the hole in his heart. He wanted it all to go away, but his hands shivered and quaked. His whole body went weak on the road as he was hyperventilating dust into his lungs, and for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime ago, Fawful began crying. He started to sob, letting the tears drop into the ground. He couldn't care less who saw or heard, but by the sounds of his wailing, birds in the trees flew out from surprise and feared what monster be out there.

"FAWFUL IS SORRY! FAWFUL IS SORRY FOR CACKLETTA!! FAWFUL IS SORRY FOR MIDBUS!!! FAWFUL IS SORRY!!!!" he screamed out in his heart aching pain. His heart was in agony for his actions, and as he closed his eyes he could feel his physical and emotional exhaustion take over him. He shut his eyes tight, and soon his breathing slowed, his brain taking mercy on his and pulling him into a dream. One that would leave him calm until his mind needed him up again.

A while later, a cart rolled down the path, pulled to a halt by the person driving it as they hopped down and took a look at the man in the middle of the road.


	4. Painting a Portrait of Your Folly

Fawful opened his eyes slowly, groaning loudly as his body ached from laying in such an uncomfortable position. Taking focus on the dark land around him, it looked as if he was inside of a thundercloud, and yet, he could walk inside of it without difficulty. He rose up slowly, holding his head which had started to pound with a headache. Looking up, he saw his idol, his mother figure, and most importantly, his leader. Cackletta. Fawful's eyes grew wide. He ran towards her, excited, nervous, but also incredibly- "Stop." She spoke

Fawful froze in place, obeying her command and with a huge smile Fawful said, "Fawful is not under belief that you are alive Mistress! Where was Ca-" "Fawful. Do you care to explain yourself?" His smile fell. "Fawful isn't of knowing what he should be explain-!" She cut him off again. "Fawful, do you care to tell me how many times now you've failed your mission to me?" His smile, which had been falling, reached the floor, shattering into millions of little pieces that could've cut into Fawful's shoe had he moved a muscle. He went stone still. Cackletta looked him in the eyes and repeated herself, sternly, "Fawful. How many times, have you failed me?" Fawful gulped down his joy, regurgitating his fears in the process.

"T-twice, Mistress." She quietly laughed for what felt like a minute, before she met his eyes, she was enraged, but something about her seemed to enjoy this. Something about her made it look like she enjoyed watching him squirm. She approached him slowly, and as she stood right in front of Fawful, towering over him, she said, "You've failed me twice Fawful, do you know what happens to those who fail me?" His teeth began to chatter in his head, the only thing that dared to move under this pressure. "T-they get...g-get…" he couldn't bring himself to finish. His mouth Instinctively closed as he kept her stare. He felt so powerless. "They get…?" She was guiding him on now, because he knew the answer. "They… are gotten rid of, Mistress…" Cackletta's smile grew large, horrifying, big enough to where Fawful could've sworn he saw his fearful look in them.

"That's right, Fawful! Now, tell me, what should you be doing?" Fawful took a step back, afraid, he began to sputter and freak out. "B-but Mistress…! Fawful didn't mean to fail! Fawful wanted to avenge Mistress! Fawful is begging you, please spare Fawful your incredible wrath!" Cackletta laughed, amused by his pleas, and raised her arm, magic power swelling in his fingers as Fawful started to panic. He didn't want to die like this! He didn't want to die a failure to Cackletta! "Goodbye Fawful. My only regret was taking you in." "NO PLEASE- CACKLETTA- FAWFUL PROMISES TO BETTER- PLEASE!" She threw her arm down, casting the powerful spell against Fawful, before all went to black.

…………

Fawful jolted awake from his sleep, falling off what he was sleeping on, tumbling down to the ground and scaring a small animal nearby. Fawful wrenched his eyes open, breathing heavily and covered in cold sweat. It was night now, and he could see the top of a wagon cart. Stars dotted the night sky as Fawful rose up into a sitting position, turning his head towards light and the sound of crackling. There, getting up to help Fawful, was a blue toad in an artist's smock, they were dotted with paint all over and seemingly more than happy to help Fawful get up. "Are you hurt?!" The toad shouted out to Fawful. Fawful was helped onto his feet and sat next to warm fire. The toad grabbed a stick off the ground and began poking at the fire to keep it alive. Silence passed for a minute as the toad fixed their fire and they asked,

"Are you okay?"


	5. There Are Many Hues of Emotion

Fawful was, 100%, not okay. But as a recent criminal who almost became the liberator of the end to admit what he had been the cause of with this total stranger would've been quite a ridiculous move. Although, Fawful had to admit, someone to vent to would've been nice right now. Even if he could just doctor up a few details, make it so this toad would never know who he was. The answer of why this toad hadn't recognized him had completely alluded him, he would've thought his face and name were known by every toad in the mushroom kingdom after what he pulled. He decided to take a risk, a calculated risk based on the look in that toad's eyes, saying that he hadn't seen his face before, and spoke, "Fabien… Fabien isn't well." The little road cocked their head at the way this stranger was speaking, but paid it little mind as they perked up with questions of their own, "So...Fabien? What were you dreaming about? Must've been real scary to have woken you like that! Where do you come from? Why were-" the toad stopped themselves, physically having to hold themselves back from talking before asking, "Sorry...was I pushing too much…?"

Fawful had been so shocked by that Toad's ability to talk for days. It also told him, more importantly, that if this toad wasn't aware of where he came from, then he clearly didn't know who Fawful was. All the better. Fawful shook his head no, and kept his eyes on the fire that had been dancing all alone and said, "No...Fabien doesn't mind." He stayed quiet for a few seconds, trying to think of how to say what he needed to say without saying too much. In the end, simple was better, "Fabien was attacked...with magic in his dream. It felt so real, like I wouldn't be waking from it" the toad nodded their head slowly, thinking about what Fawful said. Suddenly, the toad's eyes lit up and said, "Hold on! That reminds me of a painting I made once! Hold there!!" And the toad raced off into the cart, the sound of items shuffling around filled the air before the toad came out of their cart, holding a painting.

The painting was of Kamek, casting a spell on a Goomba near Bowser's castle. For a second, Fawful was bewildered. He thought all toads had been spineless cowards, running at the sight of danger. Despite this, this toad had no issues spending time making art near the castle itself. Fawful took a second to study it, a second longer than he realized and the toad asked, "Do you like it? Oh! My name is Huegh by the way!" Fawful turned his head a second and said, "Fabien enjoy-" "OH!! Hold on!!!!" Huegh raced into the cart again, still holding their piece and spoke from inside the cart, "So where you from? I'll bet I've painted it before!" Well, even if Fawful wanted to lie, he'd have a hard time on this one, so admitting the truth he said, "Beanbean kin-" "I knew it!! I just came from the Beanbean kingdom, hold on, I'll show you my favorite piece I made there!!" Fawful didn't like being interrupted every two seconds, but Huegh was so excited to talk to Fawful that it was an incredibly refreshing change of pace. Enough to keep his mind off his troubles. 

Toad hopped out of the cart, holding a painting that was a little bigger than them. It depicted Prince Peasley in a forest, practicing his sword fighting against a tree, the tree had several marks all around it, assumingly from previous practices. The picture of Prince Peasley called back memories of dueling the Prince himself. Battles that, admittedly never lasted long. Battles that always ended with Fawful the loser. Those battles always made Fawful feel like scowling, but it also reminded him of how Cackletta taught him how to use medical equipment to help speed along the healing process. Fawful felt a sort of bitter sweetness when looking at that painting, and Huegh took it the wrong way at first. "You don't like it?" Fawful hadn't noticed until then, but he had really been squinting at the picture.

"A-ah, no! Fabien is just tired! As tired as a mother with seven kids! Fabien also lacks restfulness." Huegh's eyes widened a second. They looked up at the moon for a second before mumbling, "oh...you're right. It's about midnight…" and turned back to Fawful and said, "Well, you can rest in the cart tonight, Fabien! I'll come in in a little to sleep once the fire is out, rest well!" Fawful nodded, he hopped into the cart and noticed the many paintings all around him. A lot of them depicted the Beanbean kingdom and made him wonder what it was like there now. A feeling of homesickness overtook Fawful as he rest his head on the floor of the cart, being calmly drifted away to his dreams.


	6. Calling You Back Home

Fawful dreamt no dreams that night, he woke up feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Having laid on a Wooden cart all night put a strain on Fawful's back and made it hard for him to rise up for a few minutes as he lay there trying to adjust himself and get that awful feeling out of his mind. It was day now, and Fawful was able to get a better look at the scene around him in the cart. Huegh must have come in last night without waking Fawful, sense they were laying on top of a box with a blanket and a pillow. Why didn't he get at least one of those? Fawful didn't think about it too much, as at least he had somewhere to sleep for a night, but he was a little cold. Rubbing his arms for warmth, he focused his view on the paintings he wasn't able to take a look at last night. There were many pictures of the Beanbean kingdom, so many it made Fawful briefly wonder just how long Huegh stayed there. Turning his head he caught sight of so many familiar settings. 

From Chucklehuck Woods, to Little Fungitown, and even Teehee Valley. All of the country that he learned to call home seemed to be all around him, making him wish he was home. Wherever it was that he could call home now. Fawful directed his gaze around the different paintings, taking each one in as he hungered more for home, but out of the corner of his eye, a curiosity appeared. There was a picture, showing a birdseye view of the Beanbean castle, and yet, it wasn't finished. The castle itself was colored in, fully painted, but the scenery around the place wasn't even touched. Just rough sketches. Fawful couldn't help but wonder why it was never finished. As Fawful pondered on the possibilities of why this picture wasn't finished, Huegh started waking up.

"Hm…? Fabien? I see you're up first…!" They spoke very drearily, waking up as they talked. "Huh…? Hey why don't you have a blanket?" Fawful couldn't help but feel confused at the toad's question, he thought that they went to bed last night, consciously making the choice to not give him a blanket. "Fabien does not recall you offering" Huegh looked awfully concerned at Fawful, one might even say they were upset. "I didn't mean it! I would've let you take the extra had you asked!" Fawful realized how silly it then was that he never even asked for one. It was such a simple solution to a simple problem and it never even crossed his mind. Fawful couldn't help but feel silly as Huegh hopped off the box, lifting the lid off of it, and then taking out two oranges and asking, "Hey can you catch?" Fawful looked up at the Toad holding two oranges and shook his head. "Fabien will...travel over himself" Fawful walked over and took the orange, looking at it for a second.

It took Fawful a moment, but as he peeled the orange, he tried to remember when his last meal had been, let alone any food. The last time he had eaten something...it was with Midbus. The two were celebrating being close to completing Fawful's plans by eating something that Fawful himself had prepared. He wondered what Midbus would've done if he knew that that was going to be the last meal they had together. Fawful wondered what he would've done. It was only three days ago. What would Midbus think now that this had been the first food he had eaten without him. Midbus hadn't been there to remind him to stop working and eat a little, relax a little. It had never been like Fawful to have idled this long, and as much as he wanted to work again, it felt out of the picture. What would Midbus think of the way he was acting? How could so much change in such little time?

Fawful finished peeling the orange with his thoughts to himself, picked up one of the orange slices, and popped it into his mouth. As soon as the taste hit his mouth, it suddenly hit him. He was so hungry. He wasn't just eating the orange now, he was devouring it. Huegh looked up from their orange with surprise, watching Fawful finish an entire orange in seconds while they had only eaten two slices. "That hungry? Do...you want another?" Fawful nodded his head, quite enthusiastically, and Huegh grabbed Fawful another Orange from the box, tossing it to Fawful as they continued with their own orange. The second orange was consumed as fast as the first, but by the time Fawful finished his second one, Huegh went outside. Fawful assumed that Huegh had something to do out there and left them alone. 

Fawful took this time to view more art there. His eyes drifted between each piece, begging him to come home. Telling him that there was nothing left for him in the mushroom kingdom and that his time there is over. Each piece of art invoking more emotion in him than the one before. Each one called him to come back like a parent searching for a lost child who had run away. Each time he heard it call it got louder and louder, until he could hear his heart in his head. Beating loudly trying to tell him to go home. All voices drew silent however, when he looked again at the unfinished piece. What significance did it have that this one wasn't finished? Was it meant to be like that? Was it a stylistic choice of some kind? But...if so it didn't follow up with any of the others. Fawful continued thinking, his mind racing with explanations until his concentration was broken at the call of his new acquaintance. "Hey! Fabien! Come on up here I gotta ask you something!"

Fawful left the cart, coming up to climb the steps of the cart to the driver's side where it had clearly been made for someone his size, that was certainly a first. As Fawful settled into the seat, Huegh looked at Fawful and said, "So...I saw how you were having issues with traveling, Fabien. So...I want to do you a favor okay? You seem pretty nice! Even if you are quiet...but that's alright!" Huegh stopped their train of thought, shaking their head themselves in line and said, "I'll bring you to the next town on your way to wherever you're heading! That is, if you want! Where are you heading?" Fawful thought about the offer, and honestly he needed it as much as he didn't prefer to openly admit it. But where to go? Fawful wasn't at all certain where he needed to go, but it didn't take him long to realize where he wanted to go. Somewhere he had abandoned a while ago.

"Could we be heading to the direction of the Beanbean kingdom?"


	7. Sick With Worry

Huegh chuckled for a second hearing where Fawful said he was heading, "I just came from that direction! Why didn't you say so sooner?" Well, Fawful had to admit, it was sort of an impulsive decision on his part. He didn't even know that this road would take him there, nor did he ever even consider what direction he was going. Fawful didn't really have to learn roads until now. He always had his headgear, and as long as he knew the landmarks, he knew where he was going. "How long will it take Fabien to reach Beanbean kingdom on foot?" Huegh had to think about that one, their face growing focused as they started up the cart to begin moving, the cart jerking Fawful back in his seat before he steadied himself. "About...a week? I know it's taken me four days to get this close to the mushroom kingdom." Fawful never thought about how far these places were before. Flying with the headgear, in the right conditions, it would take about a day. That included stopping for rest, eating, and other things he needed to do on the way. Traveling was always a very quick thing for Fawful, now that he was essentially going the way on foot, it would feel like forever. Well, Since Fawful had time to wait, he figured he might as well talk with Huegh. 

"So...Fabien is aware you stayed in the Beanbean kingdom for a while. What did you think of Beanbean kingdom?" That seemed to really perk Huegh up, a smile coming across the toad's face as they started to rattle off a shortened version of their tale from the Beanbean kingdom. "Well...okay so you know what the border between Beanbean and The Mushroom Kingdom yeah? Absolutely stunning! As hard as it was to get my cart around there, it was definitely worth the paintings I made there- oh! And the coffee, I swear, I was jumpy for three days after one cup! I mean maybe how much sugar I put in my coffee kind of added to it, but it was really good!" Huegh paused for a second, thinking before he said, "The people were super kind, they didn't mind posing for paintings, though I usually only draw people when they pay me for it. The Prince let me paint him while he was practicing and even told me to keep the art after I offered to let him keep it, he's really nice too, along with those kind brewers at that coffee place!" While Fawful agreed on Huegh's first two points, he couldn't say he agreed that the people were nice. Always insulting his appearance and speech patterns, making fun of him. It made him feel really defensive about things he really couldn't care less about himself until people started making a deal about it.

Fawful had felt his mood sort of sour just thinking about it. However the mention of coffee brought back something he was told about when he was little. A story Cackletta told him once he was old enough to remember it. "Fabien was once relayed the information that when he was small, he'd gotten his fairly tiny hands on some coffee. Fabien was also told that I didn't sleep for a week, that I was jumping everywhere." Huegh snickered a second before they looked at Fawful and said, "Is that so? Maybe you could try another cup someday! Get that inspiration to jump everywhere again!" Fawful got his own chuckle at that joke, right as he got another question. "Where do you get inspiration for painting what you do? How do ideas come to you for this?" Huegh's eyes lit up for another time since they had met, as was a common trait with the energetic toad. 

"Okay so, whenever I look at mountain tops, or citys, or forests, or just, any kind of beautiful place I feel like my heart wants to capture that joy I felt seeing it and the memory it brings me forever! Whenever I feel inspired it's like a strong push, bringing me towards a goal and my active imagination runs wild until I can get my heart down on a canvas! Usually I don't ever stop my painting until it's finished!" They. Don't stop until they're finished? That didn't feel right at all, no. No what about the unfinished painting in the cart? Fawful could feel his mind tugging for answers as he let the silence between the two grow longer than perhaps he should've. "Why didn't you finish that one with the sky view of Beanbean castle?" Huegh's contagious joy and smile all seemed to wipe away in an instant. As Huegh looked down at the road for a while, Fawful couldn't help but feel he should've kept his mouth shut, he should've kept his thoughts to himself and not inquire about things that would be going too far, he shouldn't have-

"My mom got really sick recently" it was the most serious Fawful thought he ever heard Huegh get. He was about to open his mouth to speak but what Huegh said next sent a chill down his spine. "My mother...she got infected with a case of the blorbs. I don't know if it's contagious, or even life threatening but...I want to be there for her if it is." Fawful had never felt so shaken in his skin by a stranger's words before. Fawful wasn't able to fathom for a second, that his choices had such an impact. It was just a convenient plan...no one was ever at risk of losing their life! It was simple and easy, an easy way to put the Mushroom kingdom in peril so he could invade and- there is was. It suddenly hit Fawful like a freight train heading straight down a hill. Of course they would think it was life threatening. A new disease pops up without a cure that puts others in danger? If anything, it didn't feel like superstition at all, just a logical conclusion. Fawful hung his head low, he had no idea what to think on his actions. He didn't even think about how he was going to cure them of their disease. Fawful quietly mumbled something so low, that you had to be listening for it to even tell what he said,

"Fawful is sorry." It was said like a whisper, and it made Huegh turn their head, uncertain if they heard anything. "Huh? Did you say something?" Fawful felt himself springing up like a scared cat. Did he just speak out loud? He hadn't even been aware he had said anything at all, and yet he had. Was he even thinking? "Ah...Fabien- Fabien said nothing. His words aren't there. But...Fabien bets his entire life that she will get better." He didn't feel like his words meant much, seeing as he was the one who started that mess, but he did mean it. He hoped that those people would get better soon."Thanks, Fabien. I haven't heard any news as of late at all, but I'm hopeful, hopeful for my mother." The cart had been devoid of voices the rest of the ride. Neither one knowing what to say to the other for a few minutes. Soon, they arrived at the city, Fawful gave his last goodbyes to Huegh and then they had left.

Fawful didn't feel all that certain with himself, but as he looked around he could see more Bean folk. That was at least a good sign that he was getting closer, but a bad sign for staying undetected. Fawful entered the nearest restaurant, heading into the bathroom to turn his cloak inside-out and putting it on like that, pulling the hood over his head, and keeping his eyes pressed to the floor. As he looked around for a map, his mind was already spinning with ideas about how he could reach the Beanbean Kingdom.


	8. Avert Your Prying Eyes

What followed in the week after Fawful and Huegh split up was a very quiet week for Fawful. He didn't say much, fearing people might recognize his voice, nor did he meet anyone's eyes for the same reason. It made him feel isolated, or like a whole separate creature from the people around him. Whenever he knew he was going to have to make eye contact, he took off his glasses, using the idea that people look way different without their glasses to his advantage. The trip did in fact take a week like his acquaintance said and during that time, Fawful began to think about where he would go once he got inside the kingdom. He wouldn't be able to go anywhere really public, so that already disqualified a bunch of spots. He wasn't very well suited to the mountains, and even if he wanted to go up, without his headgear he was virtually unable to go up the mountain. For a moment, Fawful considered living out in the wild, but the idea of having to go any longer outdoors without any sort of proper resting place, kitchen, or even just a roof over his head could suit him better. His hands practically itched to do any sort of engineering, and there was a certain difficulty with that when all your work was at risk of being rained on.

In the end, he knew there was perhaps one place where he could reach all those goals and still remain unnoticed. Deep between the branches of Chucklehuck Forest, was a path, a path marked only by the people who walk down it. Perhaps it had faded by now, or nature grew over where it once was, but Fawful remembered very well that this path could guide him somewhere he hadn't been in a while, home. Now that he was finally in the kingdom itself again, Fawful decided it was the best place for him to stay, at least until he could find somewhere else where he could pretend to lead a normal life and then disappear. Yeah, that was the plan. Was it the best plan? Not really, but in the time Fawful had been walking home it was all he could come up with. He was hoping that he could just stay out of the spotlight, no one would look at him, and to disappear into obscurity. Hopefully at the least he would just be a single page in history that everyone could just forget.

But it almost felt like all eyes were on him, like people were right above him, pointing at the one who wouldn't dare lift his face up. As he walked through the Beanbean kingdom heading down to Chucklehuck forest, his brain had somehow convinced him that everyone was watching him, laughing at him, whispering about him. He wanted to crumble, get away, and as the feeling got stronger and stronger it made him sick. Not because the staring bothered Fawful, but because there was a part of him that knew deep down that everyone had a reason to point and stare. Before, there was a part of him that despised when people stared, he just simply couldn't believe at that time that people had the right to judge him. Now he knew that he did deserve to be stared at. 

He could feel his guilt rising in his chest as he made his way away from peering eyes and chattering voices. The voices got further and further away as he ventured into nature and then into Chucklehuck forest, where now it was just him and whatever wild animal that wandered along. It was better this way. He started to run. His legs were already aching from the constant traveling he had undergone this past week but as he hopped over fallen logs and avoided all creatures to the best of his ability, he was desperate to get home, be somewhere familiar to him. To be somewhere where no one could see him. He did his best to maneuver down that overgrown path, desperately desiring a hiding place, and soon he reached it. Home.

There it was. An overgrown cottage deep inside of Chucklehuck forest. It wasn't anything special, but it was home, and by the looks of it, it hadn't been touched in such a long time. Opening the door slowly, Fawful was overheard by the dust, he started to cough a bit as he entered that small cottage. Taking in the sights it looked as if this place had been hidden well. Nothing had changed since the night he packed his things and left. Perhaps he preferred it that way. It meant that he could fade away here. Away from prying eyes.

And that's exactly what he planned to do.


	9. Home Is Where The Heart Is

Everything was right as Fawful left it from the time he left. The only new addition was a thin layer of dust blanketing everything and rot that had developed on the wooden door of Cackletta's room. Walking around slowly as he took everything in, his mind was blank. He dragged his eyes against every bit of furniture. The table still had his dirty plate from when he ate his first meal alone in the house. The clock he managed to knock over in his despair had stopped ticking at 11:17 at some point, though, Fawful couldn't recall when the clock stopped working, and wondered if it only stopped working when he had left. Entering the kitchen, he had forgotten how small it was there was just a woodburning stove, a single counter top, a small fridge that likely had the power cut off by now, and a few small cupboards. Fawful curiously opened one and was hit with a wave of not only nostalgia for what was inside, but stench. A lot of the food in there went bad and had expired years ago, and although welcomingly familiar, he backed away unwelcomingly, to the foul scent in there. He carefully took each item out, holding his breath and only breathing clearly again when he had taken out all the rotten food from all of the cupboards and placed them into a sack he once kept in by the door to hold books. Well, considering Fawful had zero chance of seeing a library anytime soon, at least it would be of some use. 

Fawful leaned against a wall after all his hard work of transferring cans and bread. He started to remember the last time he was here. It was the day Cackletta had died. Sadness started to swell inside of him as he reimagined the scene in his head. He still couldn't believe at the time that Cackletta was dead. In fact, it was one of the few times he had full on bawled about something. He had been rushing to eat the last bits of food on his plate as he was sobbing. Whining some incomprehensible words, he packed all he thought he needed. His blueprints, his tools, an extra pair of glasses and food he knew wouldn't crush his glasses. He remembered having a hard time even looking at Cackletta's door, choking up even harder as he had stared at it for a second before racing out the door, knocking over the clock in his desperation to escape the fact that his mistress was dead. Standing in the home where most of his life took place, Fawful wanted to close his eyes and forget about every detail of it. This was the place where Cackletta taught him how to walk, how to talk, how to run, how to read, how to write, how to tie his laces, everything. 

He slowly stopped leaning on the wall, he didn't even want to think about that right now. He walked down the small hallway, slowing down a second to stare at Cackletta's door. She had forbade him entry, but perhaps it was a matter of privacy. Even so, as Fawful lifted his hand to grab the doorknob, he couldn't bring himself to complete a crucial step in opening the door, turning the knob. It felt so forbidden to even hold the knob this long, and feeling his nerves spike up again he quickly took his hand back. He shook his head, shaking away the feeling as he rushed to his room at the end of the hall and threw open the door. He had been here once before, long ago.

His room lacked a familiar scent that he had grown all too close with, but he couldn't place just what that was. Stepping further in there, he could feel his heart being weighed down by all the good memories he had in this room. Each one turned bittersweet as it called back to him a time in which he was much happier. From building blocks to construction projects of full blown robots. This room was where he went to bed at night and woke up in the morning. He felt weighed down being in this room, like he had just stepped into a shackle connected to a ball and chain. His breaths became labored as he could hear himself laughing in here as a child, talking happily about changing the world. Not in a million years, when he was at that age, did he think he would change it for the worse. Fawful took slow, heavy steps towards his bed with a knot tied in his stomach. He was well aware that it was a little early for sleep, but it was the only rational way he could think of to keep his mind from thinking such horrible things that haunted him the way they did. He didn't even bother getting under the covers or adjusting himself comfortably, he just closed his eyes tight until his troubled mind peeled him away from reality.


	10. Cold Hearted

Fawful could feel cold stone on his back, seeping through his clothes and causing him to shiver himself awake. His eyes shot open and he drank in the scenery of a castle that he remembered oh so well. It was Peach's castle, only it was still the same as when Fawful had renovated and redecorated the place. There was an unmistakable chill in the air that only seemed to get worse as time stretched even through the few seconds Fawful had been awake. With a shiver down his body he got up, closing his eyes as a cold air blew in them a second. He opened his eyes and could feel another sort of chill go down his spine, this one wasn't from the cold, but from the sight that befell him. In his eyes he saw Midbus, frozen entirely in ice besides his head, which was hyperventilating to a degree. Fawful had never seen so much panic in Midbus' face and it pained him to see his minion- no his friend, in so much pain. "Midbus! Don't worry! Fawful will break you out!! Fawful will-" Fawful was suddenly cut off, and silenced by Midbus' croak. "Where has Fawful gone?" Fawful was shocked, he spoke out, "Fawful is right here Midbus, Fawful will-" "Did he abandon me?" 

Fawful all the sudden drew quiet. As he looked into Midbus' eyes which ringed with pain he remembered very clearly now. Fawful never checked on Midbus after he froze over. Fawful was so excited by the Dark Star's power that he had completely forgotten about his friend who'd completely been encased by ice. Fawful struggled to breathe, like his throat was closing in on itself as he heard Midbus talk again. "When will he come back?" As much as Fawful wanted to scream at Midbus, beg him to realize he was here, none of his words seemed to be reaching Midbus. Instead they all fell down and went unnoticed like a single raindrop in the ocean as he was getting washed away by all his emotion hitting him at once. Tears began to fall down his face as he tried to speak to Midbus again, hoping against all logic that his words would be heard. "Midbus...please…" his voice was quiet but desperate, struggling to come out. "Please Midbus...Fawful is here…" Fawful looked up to see ice climbing up Midbus' face, Midbus in turn struggling against it by turning his head up and trying to get away from the frost growing up his face as tears started to whelm in his own eyes, seemingly starting to freeze as they started to trickle down. 

"Did he use me?" Fawful felt his heart split into a million pieces upon hearing Midbus ask that. His eyes went wide and now his own tears were flowing like a water faucet down his face and to the floor. No. He didn't. At least that's what Fawful wanted to say, but the more he looked at Midbus and watched him suffer, the more he remembered how he absorbed part of the Dark Star's power without even thinking about Midbus, the more it had convinced him that he did Midbus wrong. He wanted nothing more than to make it right but he wasn't sure how. He didn't know what he could do. He wasn't sure how to change the past, and he was clueless on how he could stop what he hadn't even noticed in the past. He wasn't sure how he could make things right, he wasn't sure how he could save Midbus' life. So he slowly got up. He watched Midbus struggle to keep alive as the ice was finishing its journey and tears were now a frozen waterfall down his face. Fawful walked over and stood at the base of Midbus, remembering how he only came to part way up his legs and he opened his arms to hold Midbus as close to him as he could through the ice that was threatening to grow over him too. His sobbing grew louder as Midbus grew silent and soon all there was in that room was Fawful hugging an ice sculpture of his very first best friend.

…………

Fawful woke up from his nightmare crying. His face was completely wet and he couldn't see much through his bleary eyes. He was breathing quicker and quicker in the pale night of which filled the room through the window and covered everything in a dark light. He took the pillow underneath his head and pressed it against his eyes to wipe off his tears as memories of Midbus were infiltrating his mind. He missed Midbus so much. God he missed his best friend. Fawful could feel his sleep trying to claim him again, but not before he could wonder if Midbus even still considered him a friend.


	11. Starving For Answers

Waking up to the sound of wind hitting the side of the house, Fawful opened his eyes in what looked to be broad daylight in his room. It took him a second to adjust his eyes, taking note of how dry they felt. He couldn't contemplate why his eyes felt this way until he began to remember the foggy events of last night and his chilling nightmare came back to him. His heart sunk in his chest like a brick pulling him deep underwater and he sighed, looking at the room around him as his thoughts went dull and upset. It took a few minutes, but Fawful hadn't noticed how bright the room was for being so early in the morning. Or at least, he thought it was morning. He left his bed, went down the hall and lifted up the clock, remembering right then that it wouldn't work, so he put it down and went outside, seeing if he could judge the time from the position of the sun outside. Just a quick look of course, it would only be- The sun was in the middle of the sky. Noon. Fawful had slept until noon. He quickly spout out a sort of odd sputter that didn't amount to anything except surprise and quickly rushed indoors. 

He had slept. Until noon. He couldn't believe he was that exhausted, and now that he's woken up this late, he realized that he was going to have such a horrible sleep schedule. No no...this wouldn't do at all! Fawful wasn't certain where the candles were kept, let alone the matches, there would be no use staying up after dark if he couldn't see in it! Fawful's hands began to twitch as his mind was getting filled with ideas for contraptions that could act as alarm clocks. It took his mind off his horrible situation, and gave him a temporary form of relief as the gears in his head began turning, knocking off cobwebs from weeks of rest. He grabbed the broken block, and a bunch of other little bobbles and pieces that he found around the house and would need for his simple machine. From string, to bits of metal, and even a couple of weeds he pulled up from the yard, everything was coming together as his small hands were flying. Tying pieces together, tightening knots, and even testing how far certain items can fall to make sure they did what he needed. If anyone was watching, they could've sworn Fawful was smiling as he delighted in making something that could benefit his everyday life. Finishing the contraption, it took a few hours, but Fawful wasn't able to tell that. Fawful felt pride in what he had made, albeit something so simple as an alarm clock, he had managed to do it with such a shortage of the usual tools he might've needed. Granted, it was very primitive, but it worked. Or, so he'd have to find out when he woke up tomorrow.

Fawful smiled at his work, Cackletta would be so proud of him! His smile faltered at that thought of Cackletta, vaguely remembering the dream he had of her more than a week ago. His spine trembled at one particular phrase he remembered hearing, something that shook his soul with his body. 'My only regret was taking you in.' Thinking more on this, his heart got heavy and loud in his ears. She...cared about him, right? If she hadn't, why would she have raised him? It was an equation in his head he couldn't figure out. Cackletta must've hated him for his extreme failures, there was no doubt in Fawful's mind that she would be mad about it and haunt his very existence until it grew dull. How could he ever fix that which he had already failed to accomplish? How could he achieve vengeance for mistress and yet at the same time not put everything else in the world at risk? The idea of trying again pleaded with Fawful, trying to convince him that there was no hope for normality, that he would die alone and a failure if he did not try again. His heart begged him to fight more, do everything he could to destroy anything in his path that stopped him from giving Mistress the revenge she deserved and yet…

Fawful knew very well in his head that it would never work, that third times the charm is a recipe for disaster, one that Fawful wasn't certain he could handle stirring up again. Fawful looked over at Cackletta's door again. Maybe… just maybe...if she had a spell that could make him powerful then perhaps it could be possible. Before he even noticed, his face was wet from tears, and he had stepped closer to the door, walking about halfway before he froze in place. What was he doing? No, what was he thinking? Not only would that disrespect Cackletta's privacy, but there's nothing in that room that couldn't possibly bring him any joy. It would just make things worse for Fawful. He shook his head, sighing loudly as his stomach growled. Food...yes he hadn't eaten anything for a few days hadn't he?

He stepped quietly into the kitchen as if he was afraid to wake someone up, and opened the cabinet wide to reveal nothing inside them. He then remembered how he was planning on throwing all that rotted food out, and although he silently cursed himself for it for a second, he knew deep down he couldn't eat that food. What could he eat? Well…there were those fruits they made Chuckola Cola out of, but that would require some stealing and well, Fawful wasn't about to get noticed on the account of petty theft. He thought about trying to eat the beans out on the trees but then he realized those weren't ripe, and would make him sick if he even tried it. Not much better than the rotting food. Finally, the winner of ideas stepped up! He knew that buried in the ground, marked by an "X" on the ground, were beans that although not very tasteful, were healthy and safe to eat without cooking. Fawful would just have to dig them up for a while with his bare hands or, perhaps a stick in the forest? Yes he would go with that, and get some beans so that he may live a day longer, and more nourished. It may not have been the best tasting option, but it was the safest option for him, and as he opened up the front door and stepped outside, he let his hunger drive him towards his destiny.


	12. Finding Beans and Beanish

Have you ever looked for bean spots before? Well if you're not trained to look for them, usually you don't even notice that they're there. With this in mind, Fawful had a fairly difficult time finding his first bean spot. Not because of their lack of presence, but because there were many times he just wasn't sure if it was a bean spot, or a covered up burrow for an animal. Nonetheless, he was very adamant about finding something at the very least, and something he got. About an hour into his search, Fawful noticed an X on the ground, in fact, it was almost glaringly obvious that this was a real bean spot. Excitement whelmed up in Fawful as he knelt down and began to dig in the dirt. He felt even better when he pulled up not one, but two beans! It made him giggle in his high pitched laugh which could almost not be heard as he got up and searched for more Bean spots. As he searched, he felt temptation from his stomach, asking him to eat the beans now, but he quickly turned away from the thought. Afterall, if he could manage to get a full meal, with just beans alone. The thought of having a full plate simply left Fawful buzzing with joy as he went on with his search, pulling up about fifteen beans by his second hour of looking. 

As Fawful was looking around, his eyes caught something that contrasted the rest of what he had seen so far. It was a tall tree, with several strike marks from what looked like a very sharp weapon. Fawful stared at it for a minute, changing his position around the tree as he examined it, absolutely astonished by the sight of which he couldn't quite place where he had seen before. He backed up a bit and suddenly it all clicked together. This was where Huegh had painted their painting of Prince Peasley practicing. It hadn't changed besides the new Mark's in the tree, which meant- twigs were snapping as something, no, someone. Drew near. Fawful yelped as he turned towards the sound in surprise, his stomach had been tying itself into nasty, slimy knots, that were making his head spin. His surprise had hit him harder than a brick shot out of a cannon, and he dropped his beans, he started with a stumble as he began to run, the Prince's voice calling as he tried to get away, "Huh, wait!" Prince Peasley began to run after Fawful. "Stop! There's no reason to run! There's nothing to be scared of!" The two were now running, one away from the other, and one towards the other. Fawful could feel his heart pounding as he gasped for breath in this dizzying chase in the forest. He could've sworn his heart was trying to leap through his throat as he took a quick turn back, trying to see how far the Prince was, his blood chilling at the fact that he could now confirm by sight that it was him. He was right on his tail, Fawful was trying to formulate a new escape plan as he turned his head and-

SMACK!

Right into a tree. He was lucky his glasses hadn't broke on impact, but his head definitely took a bit of a blow. He held his head as he whimpered and groaned from the pain that erupted from it. Prince Peasley took his run down to a bit of a jog before finally stopping at Fawful. "You alright? Why were you running?" Fawful tried to turn his head with as much effort as he could muster away from the Prince. It was his last ditch attempt to keep his identity secret, and it didn't work very well because Prince Peasley had kneeled down a bit and helped Fawful up, unable to catch a glimpse of him before Fawful turned around and looked up at him. Fawful looked face to face with the Prince whom it didn't take less than a second for Peasley to jump back, his eyes filled with the surprise that accompanied how his mouth opened slightly at sight of Fawful. Fawful kept his head down out of fear, but it didn't stay down for long as Prince Peasley fumbled for a second, but he drew his sword and pointed it towards Fawful. Fawful gasped as he backed up straight into the tree and found himself unable to move from his position as he shivered and quaked at the thought of his life being taken from him. The Prince spoke with a mighty conviction in his voice, one that made Fawful wonder how he had been able turn him into another creature at one point without shaking in his boots.

"How did you survive? Why are you here Fawful? Are you trying to resurrect your wicked master?!" Although the last question was quite ridiculous, seeing as the only sort of magic Fawful had were incredibly unreliable visions of the future, that part about bringing her back hit him the hardest. Didn't Peasley think if he could bring Cackletta back he would?! Wouldn't Peasley realize that he would've tried that by now if he could? What, did he think anyone could do it? His heart nearly tore as his brain went more into it, reasoning that she wasn't wicked, she was wise. That she was a kind figure to him, and nothing about that could ever change, no matter how Prince Peasley tried to twist the truth in his head. Fawful took a sharp inhale as his mind became clouded with angry and sad thoughts, all talking about one thing. Cackletta. Before he even noticed, he was hyperventilating, tearing up, and then, he was sobbing. He dropped down to his knees as tears dripped down his face, the sword now pointing at his head, not his neck. Peasley backed up in shock, but also a bit in part because he wondered if Fawful was giving himself up to be killed so he wouldn't have to answer. Fawful began spitting nonsensical words out, all indecipherable because of how he was blubbering his words out and stumbled over them like how a child tripped over a root that poked out of the ground when they explored nature. Prince Peasley now looked down at Fawful with a dampened sense of sympathy, and decided to try another approach. Hesitantly, he put away his sword, and offered Fawful a handkerchief, unsure of how to go about this. Fawful lifted his head up as he heard the sword be put in its proper place and he watched Peasley carefully, looking at his hand through his foggy eyes and shaky breaths. Fawful takes the handkerchief with fear still close at the mind, not taking his eyes off The Prince in case of any aggression, wondering if this offering was meant as a real gesture, or just a way to make sure he'd be calm before death. Prince Peasley thought on what to say for a while as Fawful wiped his eyes, and spoke in a soft voice, "How about...we start simple?" Fawful kept eye contact with Prince Peasley, not responding, but listening. There was a bit of silence between the two as the Prince thought on his words before saying, "What are you doing there by where I practice before I found you?"


	13. Just Your Luck, Isn't It

Fawful could still feel his heart trying to leap out of his body when the Prince asked that question. It wasn't even a very difficult one either, nothing particularly nerve wracking about it. He only asked what Fawful was doing prior to Prince Peasley finding him. Fawful sort of looked around a bit. Trying to take a deep breath and work through the lump in his throat keeping him from speaking. He started to make a drawn to 'ffff' sound, before stopping to take another breath to calm himself down before finally getting his words out. "Fawful. Fawful...was… searching for beans." Peasley nodded slowly, it seemed clear that he was trying to stay as calm as he could in such a troubling situation. "Okay…" the Prince started. "Beans...for what?" Well, that seemed like such an obvious question to Fawful until he remembered all the uses for beans. Well needless to say it wasn't a very silly question to him for long. "...eatting." Prince Peasley turned his head in confusion a split second, enough for Fawful to be able to notice it, but not to think too much of it. Prince Peasley wasn't doing his best to maintain eye contact. Fawful wondered, though his panic, why was that? He knew he wasn't the finest looking bean in the garden, but he wasn't that unbearable to look at, right?

The questions started to pick up in their intensity, getting into a bit of uncomfortable territory for Fawful. "How did you survive after the Dark Star took hold of you?" Fawful's eyes widened for a second. It took hold of him? Fawful distinctly remembered absorbing the power himself, having a difficult time holding onto it, yes, but he couldn't recall it taking over him. Then again...it was the only logical reasoning behind why Fawful woke up in a river leading away from Peach's castle. Unless Bowser flung him of course but he'd probably have a lot more damage on him upon waking up and not getting the benefit of getting saved by water. "Fawful…doesn't know" Prince Peasley nodded his head slowly, the look in his face slowly shifting to show a little bit of understanding. "If the Dark Star was destroyed, how come you weren't destroyed with it?" As The Prince said that, he recognized that empty feeling in his heart from when he had woken up. It wasn't nearly as bad now as it had been back then, but Fawful wondered if this was caused by the Dark Star, and if so, how badly would it have hurt him if he hadn't gotten separated from it so soon. "Fawful...Fawful is not certain...wait! Does he need a doctor? Might Fawful die?!" Peasley's eyes shot open with surprise, he looks at Fawful, examines him a second before saying, "You look a little pale...but other than that you look okay. Maybe I could find a doctor to…" Prince Peasley's talking faded slowly. Fawful wondered if that was because he was thinking, or because he realized there wasn't a doctor alive who would want to help him.

There was silence between them again. Fawful elected to sit down while Prince Peasley tried to think of another question for his mock interrogation. Fawful watched as Peasley paced around, hand on his chin, mumbling, and shaking his head as he thought about questions before finally, he snapped his fingers, catching Fawful's attention and the Prince turned around to look at him. "Is your pig friend with you?" An ashamed silence washed over Fawful. It came when he remembered how he'd just...left Midbus to die. His heart still ached at the truth of it all, that Midbus was gone. "...Midbus isn't here." Even just saying that was a struggle for him. "He's gone." Peasley turned his head with an air of curiosity about it. "He left you?" Fawful felt so confused by that question. He couldn't have left, he's dead. Perhaps when Mistress told him once that he was Prince 'Peas for brains' she hadn't been exaggerating. "...Fawful abandoned him." The Prince looked up a bit shocked, but he didn't continue on the subject, which Fawful was thankful for. He didn't want to even continue talking about Midbus with how upset it was making him. He let out a low sigh that seemed to take Peasley's attention before the Prince simply sat down in front of him, looking a little more comfortable with this whole thing.

Peasley looked around for a second before meeting eyes with Fawful again. He leaned forward a bit considering the bit of distance between them and asked. "Where do you live out here? Um...assuming you have somewhere to live." Fawful almost considered not even answering at all. He wondered about how much more trouble he could get into with the Beanish authorities if he just got up and walked away right there, and although he was tempted to leave right there, he stayed, and answered coldly. "...Mistress' home." Prince Peasley was very interested in this answer, leaning forward a little further like a child listening to a daring tale of adventures, only difference was that it was on a generally uninteresting topic, such as housing arrangements. "Cackletta had a house…?" He whispered, low enough to where Fawful could still hear it and be annoyed with it, and continued with, "Can I see it?" Fawful wasn't sure what kind of look he had on his face, but it was enough to wipe away Peasley's curious look and replace it with concern as Fawful's own expression conveyed a bit annoyed anger. He felt like a parent that was trying to stop their kid from dropping every item in the store into the cart. "No. You are not allowed." He said in a clear, stern voice. How DARE he even think he'd be allowed to enter her home without any- "Fawful- stop looking at me like that, what if-" Fawful hadn't noticed until he was brought back from his mind to reality, but he had been staring holes through Prince Peasley. In fact, now that he was focused, he noticed that his eyes hurt. From the way he had been squinting."What if," Peasley continued, "I bring you food? Like real food, not just beans for you to eat, and all you have to do is show me where the house is." 

Fawful weighed the options in his head. On one hand, he could choose to trust The Prince on his word, he gets actual food to eat, and all is well. On another hand, Peasley could be lying to him, so he could get authorities to lock him away in the darkest Dungeon they had in the Beanbean kingdom. One a few other hands, Fawful could choose not to let Peasley bring food, and he simply doesn't, or he gets no food and the law immediately cracks down on him. Considering his options, he figured that the only thing he had to lose was his freedom, and even that was scarce and limited. "Fawful...will allow it. Follow him, but you will not enter." Prince Peasley nodded his head as the two got up and began to start walking towards the home in silence.


	14. Out of Sight, Into Your Minds Eye

Fawful had taken Peasley to Cackletta's home yesterday, and refused to let him in. Today, he woke up with the makeshift alarm he made and lay in his bed thinking about what he could do today. He didn't get much sleep last night, he kept waking up through the night, his sleeping was all dreamless and exhausting and left him feeling drained as he lay awake in bed, just staring at the ceiling while the only thing on his mind was thinking about going back to sleep. Of course, this idea was continuously met with the fact that he couldn't even sleep for longer than a few hours. He rubbed his eyes a second, not even realizing how deep the circles under them were until now. It made sense why this was of course, his horrible sleep in the past few weeks were definitely his main culprits, and the circles weren't horribly big, but it bothered him. He thought on this a little more, wondering what could be affecting his sleep. Was it his recent nightmares? He didn't think about it long however, as the silence in his room was broken by the growling in his stomach, still mad he hadn't ended up eating anything yesterday. This was getting bad, but Fawful refused to make it a habit. He sat up, still totally wiped out from the bad sleep and thought about a plan to gather beans. He had dropped some somewhere hadn't he? Right before he- Ah. That was right. Prince Peasley. He said he would bring him some food today didn't he? Well, whether that came from the Prince himself or from a prison, he would probably find out today. Sitting up however, he was able to see things around the room that caught his attention, things he didn't really notice were there until he had looked at his room this long. 

Fawful got out of his bed, walking sluggishly towards his old work desk, the one that he specifically had to cut the legs shorter because he couldn't see over the top with the tiny chair that had been a perfect fit for him. There were spare parts littered around the top of the desk, and a bunch of blueprints from some of his earliest designs of some of his inventions. Examining each blueprint, these were all things that he had either made better versions of, or scrapped entirely. In fact, each on up there met those criteria perfectly, perhaps that's why he had abandoned them here. There was one picture that caught his attention though, it was the first drawn model of his Ray gun. While he wondered for a second if it was a stretch to believe it was even still there, he looked into one of the drawers in the desk and sure enough, it was there. It was the version one, and the first ray gun he had ever made. Granted, half of it was made from parts of wood or roots that you could simply find in the forest here, so it was nonfunctional, but Fawful couldn't shake away the joy he felt when he made something tangible for the first time. There was so much that had changed from this version to the current one, or...the last one. Fawful grabbed at the inside of his cloak, wondering if it had survived any of the events that befell him, and sure enough, it hadn't. Fawful couldn't place when or where he had lost it. He remembered very specifically having it during his battle with Bowser, but it wasn't there when he woke up. Perhaps it was just lost to the river. Fawful shook his head a bit. There wasn't any reason to worry about it now, especially now that it was gone and supposedly gone forever. With all the water damage it could've faced, especially now after about a week and a half, it simply wouldn't have been worth the effort. Even if...it was one of Fawful's most prized possessions. Fawful sighed, a bit saddened that he had lost one of his favorite inventions, it was what he used to protect himself before he knew Midbus.

Midbus...the name had fallen on his heart like a dead weight, and had caused Fawful to push away his thoughts about anything relating to Midbus. He couldn't really handle that. Not this early in the morning, perhaps not ever. He didn't want to think about how Midbus would have every right to beat him up. He didn't want to think about how Midbus deserved retribution, perhaps in the form of his downfall. He didn't think about how he didn't go up to check on his one true friend in his moment of peril. Fawful wished for a second, that he would be able to say sorry. If not in this world, then the next, if it was even possible. 

He was grinding his teeth, he shook his head and pushed himself away from the desk, just doing anything he could to keep his mind off of everything. He hopped out of his chair and did a full turn to face his closest door, tearing it open as his breaths began to quicken. He needed something. Anything. To take his mind off Midbus. Looking in his closet, he saw seven sets of clothing. Just seven shirts, seven pants, seven of each clothing item besides shoes for the week. Fawful nervously chuckled for a second, Midbus would've told him this was too little clothes, and of such little variety. His frown set in place again upon hearing Midbus' name in his mind. There didn't seem to be a single voice out there listening, answering to this distress call. Everytime his name crossed his mind it was like screaming pain that sent guilt hardwired straight into his heart. How had he ever once convinced himself to just get over people? He had to get rid of this feeling. He was looking for any excuse to ignore the feeling that Midbus brought him. He opened his eyes, which he hadn't noticed had been slammed shut this long, but he kept them open nonetheless, trying to keep his mind clear. Then his eyes landed on a bunch of gadgets he had once made, or rather, the original versions of them. For a second, Fawful thought about taking them apart, rebuilding them into something better, something that wouldn't jest bring him joy. Plans began formulating in his head as he blocked out a lot of his thoughts regarding anything else. He needed a real distraction. He needed someone to talk to. He needed to scream everything to anyone who would listen. He needed-

Knock Knock.

There was a knock at the door. No doubt in Fawful's mind who it could be.


	15. Open Up

Fawful stood there for a moment, listening to the sound of knocking ringing inside of his ears. He left his room and approached the door a bit slowly, wondering why there never was a peephole made for his height. He was about to go grab one of the taller chairs to climb up and get a peek in the peephole before he heard Peasley's voice from outside. "Hello? Fawful, are you there?" He could feel his pulse, from the alarm of hearing anyone's voice, pick up a bit. He wanted to be sure though, he needed to know if Peasley had been followed or had been with any officers. He pushed a chair, rather loudly against the floor as he was unable to pick it up and brought it over to the peephole, just taking the extra step of precaution before his eyes barely reached it and he looked at Peasley. He was holding bread and a jar of peanut butter, he looked oddly uncertain but nonetheless, no one was with him. He hopped off the chair, moving it out of the way a bit before he opened the door, taking the things without a word and tried to shut the door on Peasley, hoping he wouldn't have to talk or be around him.

Sadly, Peasley put his foot between the door and the doorframe to prevent this. As Fawful looked up at his expression, it seems that Peasley more or less, expected this, as he really didn't look surprised at all. "Fawful, may I come in? I know I'm not your favorite person-" Fawful cut him off, not because he was wrong, but because what he said was an understatement. "You are Fawful's least favorite." A dead silence passed between the two where neither of them did anything for what felt like a few minutes, lasting only a few seconds in reality before Peasley sighed and said, "Okay...I know I'm your least favorite person, but if this is going to work, then I need to see you aren't trying anything." This actually felt like a better idea to Fawful than any sort of idea he originally thought Peasley would come up with. For a brief moment, Fawful actually wondered if he wasn't as bad as he thought, the absence of police was definitely a dead giveaway for this in his head, but his mind was still clouded with doubts. Nonetheless, he silently agreed to this arrangement and opened up the door further, letting Peasley's foot go free and allowing him entry. 

Fawful began walking inside, Peasley following who was quickly stopped by all the dust, coughing quite a bit as he waved his arm trying to get the dust away. Fawful turned around and watched him a bit, confused and unaware as it took him a second to realize why he was doing that, and even longer to become aware that he wasn't sure what to do about that. As soon as Fawful started taking a few steps forward, Peasley rose a little, still coughing a little as he looked around. The Prince's eyes locked onto Fawful's bag of spoiled food and he asked, "Fawful, what is that? Why is that there?" Fawful kind of looked at it for a second, trying to remember why he just let it sit there. "That is...Fawful's trash bag. He doesn't know where to throw it out." Peasley wiped his eyes a little bit and waved away a little more dust as he looked at the bag a little longer, seemingly thinking before he turned back to Fawful and nodded his head. Fawful turned to see that Peasley had forgotten to close the door all the way. He couldn't quite blame him for that, the Prince practically looked like he was having a coughing fit when he entered the home. Fawful closed the door and as he turned around, he watched Peasley walk into the kitchen, leaving Fawful in the living room alone with a jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread, and himself. He decided to put these items down, placing them on the table before he looked out the window past the kitchen. 

Fawful began to think again, not about Midbus, or Cackletta, or anyone he had particularly wronged, but about Prince Peasley, and all the things his highness did to him. He remembered getting jabbed, multiple times in fact in one sitting with Peasley's sword. There was a nasty scar on his stomach from that at the time, which looked like nothing but a mere scratch now. The shock that had traveled through his body through each cut. None of them had been as deep as the one on his stomach, but it still did make him panic upon seeing it the first time. There was also the time where The Prince kicked him square in the head. He almost replaced his glasses after that, they were simply on the verge of breaking into little pieces after that whole debacle. There was only one thing that he could think about that was really the icing on the cake of Fawful's hatred, and that was how Peasley was one one of the people whose hands played a part in Cackletta's death. She was gone, and had been gone for a while now, and that was in part because of Peasley. Fawful wasn't upset in the same way when Cackletta had died that he was now, it was just a boiling anger now, after his own tears were placed in a pan of time and left to simmer. 

Fawful suddenly broke out of his trance with a shock as he saw Peasley reach for the doorknob on Cackletta's door. Panic rushed through his body as he took off sprinting towards the door yelling "STOP!! BACK AWAY!!" alarming the Prince as he stepped back to get out of Fawful's way before he ran into him. "Why?!" The Prince called out. "What are you using it for?" Fawful sputtered a bit before his sentence started, and he said with alarm teeming in his voice, "Fawful isn't using it!" At that moment, Fawful realized how incriminating that sounded as not only did Peasley look at him with an accusatory look that could shiver down his spine, but he took an assertive step forward, forcing Fawful to back a few paces. Fawful could feel his anger shifting into fear and Peasley continued to look at him while he turned towards the door and reached his hand to grab the knob once again. Fawful began trembling as Peasley looked away, focusing his glance on the door before he froze in place at Fawful's whimper of a request. "Wait." The Prince looked over in surprise, to see Fawful in tears now, shaking and doing everything he could to maintain eye contact. "Fawful begs you...please…" he began to plead, "He doesn't want to disrespect Mistress' wishes…" At this point, Peasley's hand had been right above the knob, frozen in place. The Prince looked down at his own hand for a second and for what felt like a lifetime, neither of the two dared to move. 

Slowly, Peasley took his hand away from the door and placed it back at his side. Fawful looked at him with relieved surprise behind his tears. He almost couldn't believe it. The two held eye contact for a moment, Peasley meeting his look with a sort of sadness in his eyes before he started backing up to the front door. As Fawful continued looking into his eyes, he couldn't tell what was in them beyond sadness. Was it remorse, was it pity, or perhaps even guilt? Maybe it was all of it at once. Fawful wished, just for a second, that he could read emotions better than this, but it was a social skill that always eluded him. Prince Peasley mumbled out a quiet, "Sorry." Before he turned to the front door and opened it to let himself out. He started to walk out but sighed and turned to Fawful, facing back to him with a look in his eyes that just drew more confusion out of him. He could only guess that there was a sorry somewhere hidden in there like the Prince had previously mentioned himself. "I'll be coming back tomorrow, is there anything you want to eat?" Fawful didn't care what he got at this point. He just wanted Peasley gone so he could alone. He tried to think of any food he could eat here without cooking. Fawful was silent for a few seconds as he tried to think of any response that could get him quickly out of this situation. "Limes." Fawful didn't even bother to look at how Peasley responded to his answer as he turned away and began walking towards his room. He only heard the door shut behind his head and he left out an exasperated sigh. Fawful wasn't even sure why he said limes. Mistress was the one who liked limes, not him.


	16. You Can't Avoid Him Much Longer

It had been about two days since the incident with Prince Peasley. It felt like every day Peasley came back, there was something else he was sorry about. Fawful didn't understand why he was acting like this. No one was ever sorry to Fawful, and at this point, he just didn't know how to respond to it. Fawful couldn't fathom any reasons besides what Peasley had done the other day for him to be sorry. Fawful just couldn't fathom the idea that someone wanted his forgiveness, or why they would want it. He lay in bed on that third night, trying to rack his brain for answers, thinking why. Why would anyone, and a member of royalty for that matter, want his forgiveness? His querying kept him up way past what could be considered a bedtime and rain could be faintly heard hitting the roof of the cottage along with thunder roaring a few miles away. Fawful could only guess it was a few miles away anyhow, every time he saw a flash of light from his window, he would count the seconds to see how far away it was. It was really the only thing keeping him from his thoughts pressing down on his head like a load of bricks, just these simple moments. It also helped him realize that the lightning was slowly approaching his home. There was a faint memory called to mind, when he was just a small child, he had been holding onto Cackletta because of how loud the thunder was. It made him feel silly now, looking back on it, but he remembered what Mistress told him to calm him down, but as he remembered the scene, he could almost feel her familiar warmth as she held him with care. "Fawful, it's going to be okay, this house is safe, do you know why?" The child Fawful looked up at her, he hadn't had glasses at the time, so she looked blurry, but he had asked her, looking into her eyes as best he could and asked, "Why?" Her warm chuckle made Fawful's cold fear at the time dissipate a little. "Because I've placed many charms on this home. There are so many important things in this house to get struck by lightning that's out of my control" she stopped for a second before petting his head and giving him a gentle, motherly kiss on the forehead. "Important things like you Fawful."

As another strike of lightning called him back to reality. He wasn't sure if he could call himself important now, at least, not in the same definition that Mistress seemed to have it put under but as he watched the light pour in suddenly from his window, something caught his eye. There was the Shadow of something moving on the wall which had been caught by the light. It was something big. Far taller than Fawful, and much larger. To Fawful's tired brain, running low on lack of sleep, it seemed monstrous. The questions began to poke at his mind, wondering how anything found this cottage, and what it was. He turned out of his bed, knocking a few bread crumbs off him and onto the floor. Fawful looked out the window, waiting for the next flash of lightning to illuminate this strange beast, and he got his regrettable wish. Another crash of lightning, somewhere nearby, brightened up the forest scene outside his window briefly, he shrieked at the sight of a horned creature. It was only there for a second, but Fawful could see it's eyes turn to look at him in that split second before all went dark again. Fawful clutched his heart, breathing quickly before he swallowed hard, listening to the monster grow closer and closer. 

The door. He needed to lock the door he needed to get there now and it was all he could think about as he scrambled to run down the hall, charging as quickly as he could before he slid on a rug in the hallway, falling face first into floor and catching a mouthful of dust covered carpet before he pressed himself up again, doing anything he could to get to the lock before the monster as he heard the giant going around his home, he could feel the ground thudding underneath his own feet as he tried to keep himself from heeling over and coughing out pure dust as he raced down the hall and nearly tripped again as he turned the corner and practically threw himself onto the door. He tried to get to locking it but he couldn't stop himself anymore. He began spitting out dust and coughing loudly as the steps got closer, he could feel every inch of his skin getting frozen as he heard the stepping get closer and slower. He struggled to breathe, it was so hard with the dust down his throat. He tried to grab the doorknob, clutching it with as much strength as he could before he felt the cold doorknob and he heard a voice behind the door. "Hello? Is anywhere there?" He could feel his mind tugging at him, making him feel the chilling familiarity in it. Coughing a few more times, he weakly grabbed the chair by the door that he had used to check if Peasley alone, and he put it in place. Hopping up and looking through the peephole. He knew who it was. He had a feeling he knew what this was. Retribution. And well, who was he to stop his fate?

Fawful hopped off the chair, putting it back where he got it before walking slowly up to the door again. The lone company waiting just outside of it. "Hello?" The booming voice said again. Fawful placed his hand on the doorknob, and turned it slowly, opening it and staring at what he thought to be the cold, dead body of his friend, standing and breathing. Fawful looked on at him like a deer caught in headlights, accepting his doom before he was even certain that that was what this was. 

It was Midbus.


	17. A Shocking Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://youtu.be/nDq6TstdEi8
> 
> Listen to that while you read! It'll really help the atmosphere!

Midbus didn't look the same as when Fawful had seen him last. He was mostly pink again, besides speckles of blue on his arms and even a little on his head and his belly started pink but faded into a blueish-purple. His left tusk had some rough scratches on them, with the right one being broken off around the tip, there were definite signs of use, perhaps even struggle using them. He looked a little battle torn, there were a few, faint burn marks, the most obvious one being a spot on his cheek right. The look of disbelief in this ghost's eyes was insurmountable. "Fawful?" His deep voice bellowed. Fawful couldn't believe who he was looking at. Had Midbus come to take his revenge from beyond the grave? Fawful couldn't regurgitate any words back to Midbus in the foulness of the storm, all the sound he could manage to convince to leave his mouth was, "...M…". Thunder cracked nearby, illuminating parts of Midbus' face more clearly. His eyes looked sad, and it shot a bullet of pain through his heart to see Midbus like that. To see that this was all his fault. "Fawful?!" Midbus called in shock, "Is that really you?"

This didn't feel like the way ghosts were usually said to act. Was Midbus alive? Had his judgement been flawed in some way? His body wasn't as transparent as the dark scenery and sudden light gave way for Fawful to realize. "Mid...bus…?" Fawful turned his head slowly like a dog would, taking in all of Midbus while another bolt of lightning struck behind Fawful somewhere, creating a small rumble in the ground and making him slightly aware of how drenched he was getting. "But how did...how did Midbus survive…?" Midbus just continued looking at Fawful with a sort of wonder and he opened his mouth, letting it hang open a second, before he snapped his mouth shut and anger soon filled those once fascinated eyes. "No. No this isn't about catching up." Another crack of lightning, this one a lot louder and closer struck about a hundred feet away from Midbus, enough to send the ground trembling a second and long enough so that Fawful would have light to see the look of betrayal in Midbus' face. Enough to send cracks down his heart that were spreading like fractured glass. "I knew it." He continued "I knew you were alive." There was a long silence as rain started pouring down harder and harder. Midbus was feeling around at something in his hand, Fawful couldn't tell for the life of him what it was, but at this moment he didn't care what it could've been. "Why did you abandon me?"

Fawful could begin to hear his own heartbeat pounding on his ears, Midbus was trying to make him remember something that he had been blocking out. Memories that Fawful never wanted to revisit. Moments that he wished never happened, because if they didn't, he wouldn't be here standing in the rain like he was now. "I...Midbus I…" he was doing all he could to hold back his tears, he kept his eyes to the ground to avoid looking into Midbus'. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to remember. He didn't- "Fawful. Tell me. Why did you leave me there? Was I not good enough for you? Was your newfound strength enough to convince you to leave me to die? Go ahead Fawful. I'm all ears." The last sentence was spat like poison from a snake he had willingly let bite him. "Fawful...wanted to help Midbus…" although Fawful couldn't see it, Midbus looked a little surprised for a second before he held his stern stance, he thought about talking, but allowed Fawful to continue. "Fawful thought… if he took some of the Dark Star's power… he could save Midbus…" he didn't want to remember any further than that. He didn't think he could handle it. Still, he felt urged on, looking back up to Midbus he could see he was willing to listen, even if anger was clouding his view. 

Fawful looked down again, and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to recount all that had happened against his own wishes. He had gone towards the Dark Star, hoping it's power could free Midbus. Then, after absorbing about half of it, Bowser punched him, making him fly through the wall. He remembered everything had a white haze after that. Fawful began to try his explanation. "Fawful...tried to use the Dark Star's power. He wanted to free Midbus but… Bowser made everything go white…" Midbus listened, anger still lining his face like a hastily drawn sketch. "Really? You fought Bowser? That's what stopped you?!" Fawful looked up in shock, he could hear more thunder in the distance and felt his socks getting completely soaked as his voice teemed with panic, and a desire to explain himself. "N-no! Midbus, Fawful did not want to fight Bowser!" Fawful wondered if that was the truth, if he didn't want to, why did he...and then it hit Fawful, like how a lightning bolt hit a tree somewhere off in the distance. He wasn't the one thinking his own thoughts at that moment. It was the dark star. It all started making sense now. Fawful wanted control, he wanted nothing to do with the world ending. That was why Midbus never crossed his mind after he left that room, it was because he didn't have the choice to think. Fawful looked up to Midbus with a look that made it seem as if he had just figured something out. That this horrid puzzle of his nightmares had fit all the pieces together to make one ugly picture. He never had any control over the dark star, it had control over him. 

Fawful opened his mouth, he racked his brain, thinking for any sort of way he could get this across to Midbus. If Midbus hated him for it, then so be it, but more than anything, Midbus deserved an explanation. If Fawful couldn't do this as his best friend, then he truly failed. "Midbus...I do not think...Fawful was thinking" Midbus looked unimpressed with that answer as another boom from the sky sounded off right before he spoke. "Yeah. You weren't. It was a real dumb move Fawful. A real. Dumb. Move." Fawful's spine shuddered at the sound of Midbus' response. No. He wasn't saying this right, he needed to explain this better, what was going on right now wasn't covering it. "What...Fawful means is that he wasn't thinking his own thoughts." This was a lot harder to explain than he thought, and every second he stared Midbus in the eyes, he could feel Midbus staring daggers into his soul, and it was only getting worse by the second. His explanation grew frantic and desperate. "Fawful doesn't remember thinking with his voice in mind! Someone else was speaking! Someone else was talking with Fawful's mouth!" Midbus didn't like this answer. They were both completely wet now, and Midbus was shivering in what Fawful hoped wasn't anger. "Really? Alright then. Whose voice was it. Was it Bowser? Was it King Koopa himself demanding you fight him? Come on Fawful, whose FUCKING VOICE WAS IT?" 

That swear, added along with his other words and how he was leaning over Fawful now was enough to send sheer terror down his body. The sky looked completely black now, and Fawful screamed his last ditch attempt to save the friendship from the first person he could've ever called a friend. "THE DARK STAR!! IT TOOK FAWFUL'S THOUGHTS!" Suddenly, a zap of lightning struck down trying to hit the house, only to be stopped with a glowing blue shield that appeared around the house, protecting it from any damage the bolt may have caused. The sound pounded in Fawful's ears as he covered them and felt slight quaking in the air itself. Looking back up at Midbus, he was shivering still, and Fawful now felt why. The air was getting colder and colder as Midbus stared down with immense shock with what Fawful said. He kept looking at his dripping best friend, who at this moment, could've been the thunderbolt that had just came down, because he didn't even dare look up at it after what he said. At this moment, Fawful mattered to him more than any house with magical properties just protecting itself from an attack. "You...it…" Fawful looked up to Midbus, crying. Sobbing his little heart out at the fear of losing Midbus. There was realization and a hint of shame crossing his eyes as he looked down at Fawful. 

Fawful listened to the storm echoing again before Midbus put a hand very gently on his shoulder. "Come on. That's...that's all I needed to know. Let's get you inside Fawful." Fawful nodded his head as he turned around and opened the door, letting himself and Midbus in. Midbus tracked mud in and to a degree, so did Fawful as he dripped everywhere on the floor. His sniffles were now loud and clear in the dark, drearily quiet room. "Fawful it's…" Midbus started his sentence, pausing a bit to think before saying, "Fawful, you had no control over it...it's fine." Fawful nodded his head like a crying kid whose parents told him that they weren't mad, just disappointed. He wiped his eyes and looked up to Midbus. "Fawful is...Fawful is so very sorry Midbus…" Midbus looked down at Fawful with shock. "No Fawful i… I'm sorry I swore. I knew you didn't like swearing, and I did it anyway." Fawful nodded his head, wiping a few more tears as Midbus put out his hand. "Fawful, I'm sorry. No more kingdom conquering for us. We're...still best friends right? Come on. Shake on it." It was almost like Fawful had been waiting for these words for an eternity. The way he reacted to them, with all his hope in that cold room, you could've probably assumed that he had just fulfilled a prophecy. He grabbed Midbus' hand triumphantly and shook it with all his heart. Midbus chuckled a second at Fawful's enthusiasm, and released the hand shake. "Alright. Now uh, go and dry off. I'll find some towel here on my own, just go to bed, Fawful, you should've been asleep by now." There was an odd spring in Fawful's step, as he headed down to the bathroom. 

Afterall, he had just found one of the only people he had learned to trust.


	18. We're in It for the Long Fall

Fawful opened his eyes to feel wind wrapping around him as if he was water dripping through someone's hands. He was falling through the clouds with his back to the land below, looking at the castle above him floating in the air. Wait...that was Bowser's castle. He was in his pink jumpsuit, the kind he had specifically designed for flying. What was he doing up here? First all he remembered was getting batted out of a window with a hammer, before everything came back to him. He had lost against the Mario Brothers, his stomach stung horribly not just from the hammer, but from the stab he had received from Peasley's sword. His head was in so much pain that it took him a second to realize what was going on. He was falling. Cackletta was still up there in the castle, no he had to warn her he had to tell her that the brothers were coming! No no no no no NO! Fawful began flapping his arms wildly, trying to pull himself upwards with the abilities that he had implemented into his suit. He knew Cackletta could handle herself, but a part of him needed to go up there himself, despite how much his body was begging him to give in, to fall, to rest. He needed to know for himself that Cackletta was going to be okay. He watched as the Mario brothers came out on that...Blablanadon? Fawful tried to remember what it was called, but his thoughts went mute as his eyes turned back to castle, focusing more on the details now that he was closer. His heart practically stopped looking at the explosives that were hooked onto the castle. Wait, NO-

KABOOOOOM!

Suddenly, it looked as if there were two balls of fire in the sky. The castle blew up and chunks of it were flying everywhere, there wasn't a single sign of Cackletta. For a moment in time, everything went slowly, his breathing, his thinking, even how time around him shifted. It all froze in place. Then, everything returned to normal speed, and he wasn't trying to fly anymore, he was reaching towards the second sun, hyperventilating like he couldn't get enough air when he was surrounded by it. His tears flew through the sky as he struggled to comprehend what happened. His heart snapped in two as his mouth hung open, screaming and wailing at what he just witnessed before those incoherent words took form. "CACKLETTA!! MISTRESS!!!" he let out another feral outcry before his throat struggled to make any noise at all. The only kind it managed to make was groans that sounded as if it came from an angry cat. His breaths were heaving and his sobbing eyes blurred everything out of sight. She was gone. She was gone. She was gone. He didn't want to fly anymore. His body went limp as if he didn't care about the world below spiraling closer. At this moment, it didn't matter to Fawful if his game ended. All his life he lived to make Cackletta proud and happy, and all his life he had done just that. What was the point if he lost his only companion in a world as horrible as this one? His head continued to pound with a raging headache before he closed his eyes and accepted with open arms whatever fate decided for him.

SPLASH!

………….

Fawful slept past his alarm this morning, about until noon. In fact, he would've slept longer into his horrid nightmare had Midbus not entered his room around that time and began poking his face. The poor bean had been moving around and creating such a stir in his sleep that he knocked his glasses off the stand. "Hey, Fawful, you alright there…?" Midbus began waiting for Fawful's response as the remains of horror and hopelessness in Fawful's head slowly slithered itself out of his mind like a snake until all that was left of it was that lingering feeling of emptiness in his heart and fleeting memories of moments he wished could stay buried away. He turned over in his bed to see what looked like a pink blob with blue speckles. He squinted his eyes for a moment not believing what he was looking at before he realized what it was he was looking at. He rushed to grab his glasses, which were not on the nightstand that he grabbed at, before he quickly looked down and saw what he thought to be his glasses on the floor. He leaned over the bed to pick them up, and put them on as he blinked a few times adjusting to the figure before him. 

It was Midbus. The moments of last night called to him as he looked up at his best friend, and it felt like the fear in his body was dispelled at the sight of his friend. Whatever that dream was, it wasn't real, but Midbus was. Midbus was real, tangible and alive, that nightmare was fake, it couldn't hurt him. Fawful had a small, bittersweet smile as the kind thoughts were melting away the bad ones. "It is nothing Midbus, Fawful was just having the bad dreaming." Midbus opened his mouth to respond but he quickly turned his head away to sneeze, mumbling something about the dust as he rubbed his snout and shook his head. "Sorry about that, so uh, what kind of dream was it? I understand if well, you're not comfortable sharing." Fawful, although very happy with Midbus around, didn't want to think about the nightmare and how it still tried to hold Fawful down like a ball and chain. He looked at Midbus with a bit of worry lining his content and shook his head no. Midbus looked a bit surprised by this, perhaps it was the fact that Fawful looked so happy after a seemingly horrid dream, or perhaps it was because this was one of the first times that Fawful didn't want to rant about an issue he had.

"Well...alright pal. If you say so, but you have to get up." Fawful looked at Midbus with a hint of confusion in his face. "Hm? How so Midbus? Fawful believes it is far too early to wake up!" Midbus gave a deadpan look at Fawful before saying, "Fawful, do you even realize what time it is?" Midbus took a quick look outside Fawful's window before looking back at Fawful before saying, "Fawful, it's past noon" Fawful nodded his head slowly, looking down at his covers for a second before Midbus' words sank in. "Oh...OH!" Fawful's quick realization at the time brought him to a second realization. "Midbus, the Bean Prince is soon to be here!" Midbus raised one finger and asked, "The who-?" Right as he was quickly interrupted by Fawful "Prince Peasley has been coming by and giving Fawful both the sorrys and the food!" Midbus once again kept his finger up in the air and pointed it to Fawful with a shocked look on his face, raising one eyebrow as he watched Fawful get up and start to put clothes on over his pajamas. "So...you're under house arrest and royalty is asking you to forgive them? I...can't say I'm following." Fawful looked up to Midbus as he put regular pants on over starry leg PJs and said, "Yes, well. No…? Fawful does not think he understands either." Fawful also didn't want to unload all the events that happened a few days ago so he kept his mouth shut in that regard.

Midbus opened his mouth to say something else, but got this unsure look on his face before he ultimately decided to change the subject. "So...Fawful. I noticed there was a door on the end of the hall." Fawful stopped in the middle of putting on a sleeve over his sleeve because he already knew what room he was talking about. He was talking about Mistress' room. Like a ghost that refused to leave the host it's haunting, he could feel the weight of his dream put a hand on his shoulder and keep there as Midbus continued his question. "It looked like it hadn't been opened in years, any reason why that door has been neglected?" Fawful flinched at the word 'neglected'. It wasn't neglected, it was just…well.. avoided out of respect. "That… that room was Mistress' room." Fawful's voice was compacted with sadness, and Midbus knew he struck a chord judging on his sudden change of expression from curiosity to discomfort. Fawful was about to continue his sentence but Midbus walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, causing Fawful to look up in surprise as he didn't hear Midbus coming. Fawful practically jumped out of his skin like Midbus had pulled him out of some sort of nightmarish daydream. "Hey, buddy, you don't have to continue. I won't even think about touching that door." Fawful's face went from grim to relieved. Relieved that he wouldn't have to explain to Midbus. It was one of the things that he loved the most about Midbus, his ability to read him like a book. Well, that, and to remind him everyday to care for himself. 

"Thank you Midbus, Faw-" Fawful was cut off by the sound of knocking on the door. The two both turned their heads towards the door and waited for a few seconds as if they were trying to gauge if what they heard was real. Then, the voice outside confirmed it. "Hey Fawful? It's me, Peasley. Can you let me in? I think I have an idea for something we could do!" You could tell that Peasley was just holding back excitement by the tone of his voice. It wasn't that hard at all. Fawful turned back to Midbus, looking at him with alarm before he turned his head towards the door and back at Midbus. He backed up slowly towards the front door and whispered to Midbus in a low voice. "Stay in here. Do not make a sound Midbus." Fawful then turned his head towards the door and yelled, "Fawful is coming! Give him a secondness!" And then looked back to Midbus to see him give Fawful a slow nod. Fawful then made his way out of the room, and shut the door. He ran over to the front door and opened it up. There wasn't really a point to pulling up the chair anymore, he always knew who was coming. On this occasion, Fawful found himself shocked at what Peasley brought with him. His arms were full of cleaning supplies including detergent, a few feather dusters, paper towel rolls, and some glass cleaner. It was already impressive that he had managed to carry that all just alone, nevermind the fact he seemed unfazed by it, and even more ecstatic seeing Fawful open the door. "Oh good! Today Fawful, we're going to do some spring cleaning." Fawful considered bringing it up, but he didn't think it was possible to do 'spring' cleaning if it was already Autumn.


	19. Brushing Away The Cobwebs

Fawful thought on this...Autumn cleaning for a second. He didn't think his home was very dirty at all. Sure there was dust everywhere, a trash bag in the living room, and he wasn't sure how he was going to wash his clothes but- you know what, that doesn't matter. Fawful does not live in filth and does not need any assistance for cleaning. "Fawful...is fine." Peasley looked a little disheartened but pressed on. "Come on Fawful, I nearly died walking in here the first time!" Fawful knew that wasn't too far of an exaggeration, but Peasley spoke about it like it was as he was trying a playful tone. It probably would've raised his spirits if he wasn't so nervous that Midbus could be found out. "Come on Fawful, let me in. I promise it'll me be qu-" Peasley stopped in his tracks and for a second, Fawful couldn't figure out why until he noticed what Peasley was staring at. Giant, muddy Midbus footprints going all the way to the kitchen. Peasley was held in stunned silence as his mouth hung open for a second before he said, "Fawful…? Whose footprints are those?" Fawful needed a lie, he needed something quick, come on… come on… "Fawful let in an animal with much bigness last night." While it wasn't a complete lie, you could tell that Peasley wasn't fooled by it for a second.

"Right...and what did this animal look like?" Oh no. No Fawful was terrible at lying! Why did he ever once think that was a good idea? "He- it. It looked like a pig with uh. Two legs! And it had two giant legs!" He was repeating himself now, this wasn't good. "It actually had a very small body." Peasley gave him the biggest look of disbelief he had ever seen in his life. This wasn't working at all, he needed to wrap this up, and he would've but Peasley began talking. "Where is it? I don't see any tracks leaving your home, can I see it?" Fawful furiously shook his head and said, "You will not! Fawful demands that you leave his house now! Go!! Leave!" He began trying to shut Peasley out as Peasley yelled, "Hey! Stop! No no no no, let me in!" He started pressing his body against the door to stop Fawful but the two stopped and held in place at the sound of a loud sneeze coming from Fawful's room. "...Is that it?" Peasley said. Fawful didn't respond, he just stood frozen, as if being still was what made this problem go away. "Fawful. Did that sneeze come from that… animal you let in?" No response again. But this time he let up on the door, giving up. Letting Peasley in.

Peasley entered as Fawful watched him closely. This was it. Peasley wasn't going to trust him after this. He was going to call the police on him and Midbus. He was going to tear them apart after they just found each other. He was going to- Fawful could feel his heart pound out of his chest as he heard the door to his room open. It felt as if disgusting vines in his body were actually tightening around his heart. He turned around finally, closing the door, and seeing how Peasley put his cleaning supplies on the table and there was a dreadful silence putting him on edge. Then, the silence was breached. Not by Peasley, but by Midbus. "Um...hello. I'm that two legged Pig he was talking about." Fawful was hit with a load of surprise as he started to hear giggling, then, it turned into laughter. Bright, cheerful, laughter. Fawful walked forward to see Peasley getting a genuine and happy laugh out of this. Peasley turned to Fawful and said, "I thought you said he was gone! The only place he's gone is in your home it seems!" Peasley got another laugh out of his own poke at Fawful before he looked up at Midbus and then back at Fawful. Fawful had his mouth completely hung open. All of his dread was slowly replaced with a light relief that all was going to be okay. Fawful didn't notice, but for once, he actually smiled in Peasley's presence. Taking a few steps forward, he had to admit, this was probably the first time he felt joy around Peasley as well. Nothing more, nothing less, just...joy.

Midbus decided to start talking first. "So, how has Fawful been doing? I only got here last night, so maybe you could tell me if my little buddy has been caring for himself like he should." Peasley put his hand under his chin and looked over at Fawful for a second before he said, "Well, I've tried to help him. Bring him food, I'm not sure if he has eaten any, but I wanted to help him clean up this place so at least if he is, he has a cleaner place to do it." Midbus nodded his head as he turned back to Fawful. "Have you been eating, Fawful?" Peasley then asked Midbus, "Are you okay by the way?" Midbus shrugged a bit and said, "Eh. I've bean better." Fawful caught that little pun Midbus slipped out and he chuckled for a second. "Well...Fawful has eaten...a few slices of bread." Peasley piped up hearing that. "What about the fruit I gave you? Did you put Peanut butter on the bread?" Fawful didn't. He was about to lie about that but remembering his most recent incident with trying to tell a lie, he held back. "Well...No." both Midbus and Peasley widened their eyes at this, the Prince was the one to hold his mouth agape. There was a thick silence before Midbus cut it himself and said, "Fawful...you've been eating bread by itself?" Fawful nervously laughed as he looked down to the ground and rubbed his sock into the ground. "Ah...Fawful calls them Bread Sandwiches." The Prince finally closed his mouth but then opened it again to say, "Fawful, you can't just only eat bread for a meal, that isn't healthy." Peasley left his room, walking down the hallway and past Fawful and going back to his cleaning supplies. 

"Fawful, with you and your friend's help, I want to help you clean this place. Maybe bring some more food…? If Mother allows it that is...I think she's getting suspicious of me leaving with random items I don't bring back." There was a very definite look of anxiousness as he grabbed some window cleaner and took a quick look at Fawful. He then shook his head, shaking away that concern with it, and said, "Fawful, will you...allow me to help you? Clean your home that is. I'm not expecting to do this alone, like I said, but as long as you're helping too I don't mind." Fawful still didn't want any help. In fact, he thought this home was fine. Even if there were some obvious disgusting things he was living with. "Fawful does not nee-" "Why yes!" Midbus rushed in, interrupting Fawful with a slight nudge and said, "We would love your help!" He turned a side eye to Fawful, wishing for him to agree. Fawful knew that while Midbus usually tried to do what he thought was best for him, this was not a choice he wanted help with. "No! Fawful is not of needing help!" Peasley had a look of disheartened disappointment on his face that had been quickly shocked out of him when Midbus said, "Come on Fawful, you know, if this place was clean, I wouldn't have been caught." Fawful probably would've been a little mad at that remark if Peasley hadn't quickly backed him up in such a goofy sounding voice. "Yeah! He wouldn't have been caught! So let me help you so you can hide more friends here!" Fawful was still a little on the fence, but as he looked up at Midbus, he saw that face he has seen plenty of times. That face that simply said, "C'mooooooonnnnnn" and so, Fawful did, C'mooooooonnnnnn.

He huffed like a child would, but went over to the table, hopping up on it a second to grab some cleaning rags and said, "Fine...Fawful guesses…he needs help." Peasley gasped with excitement from the fact that Fawful was accepting his help. Midbus went into the kitchen to get a broom as Peasley started off talking a whole battle plan just to clean a house. "I'll get the windows and clean the floors! Fawful, go ahead and do the counters and dust everything off if you don't mind, Mr. Well...I don't know your name, what's your name?" "Midbus" "Mr. Midbus! If it's fine with you, go ahead and sweep the dust Fawful gets off the counters outside! I'll figure out how to get rid of that trash bag, at some point, let's just move it outside the door for now!" Without anyone else having a word in it, Peasley picked up the bag and moved it out the door before he began working on the windows outside. Fawful and Midbus worked in content silence as Fawful burned his anger through working and Midbus hadn't really been thinking through the whole thing. Afterall, what are you supposed to think about while you sweep? Fawful then put down his cleaning rag about halfway through his job and began thinking. Why was Midbus so adamant about him cleaning his home? It wasn't that bad was it? Fawful slowly turned to Midbus, and piped up, quickly grabbing his friend's attention. "Midbus...why did you insist that Fawful's home is of needing a clean? Fawful thought it was alright." Midbus thought on his words a bit, probably trying to find the best words to use, before he came out with his answer. "Well...you see Fawful… it's not that hard to see you need help. You have this...dark, gloomy aura about you and it hurts watching you shut out people. You don't feel exactly the same, and I don't know if the Dark Star left an impression on you, but I can't stand to see you, my best friend, living in garbage and...just not caring anymore. You probably don't see anything wrong with the way you're living but...I've looked around Fawful. You aren't the idle type, but it looks like you haven't done anything." Midbus went quiet and looked to the ground for a minute before saying, "I want to help you Fawful, and I don't know if you realize it, but that guy out there wants to as well. Even if I don't really know why. But...please Fawful. You're a very important person to me, one of my first true friends." 

Fawful was stunned into silence. There was an odd mix of concern and genuineness in Midbus' words that both warmed his heart and tugged at his heartstrings. Fawful spoke the only words that came to mind. "Fawful...will try to get better" he wondered, even if just for a second, if he meant those words as he could feel vines tugging at him to keep silent and to drag him into a bad mood for making Midbus upset but...he already put his word on it. He was going to try and get better, and if he had to fight these poison ivies to find his happiness then he would do whatever it took. For himself, and for Midbus, and he would start here, with this dust and cobwebs that he needed to be rid of.


	20. Sunrise Hope's High

Peasley had already left for the night. He left a lot of the smaller cleaning items there at Fawful's home and made his way back to his castle after they all shared a Peanut butter sandwich. It was a pleasant evening overall, and although not everything was clean, like the silverware, and well, the kitchen itself, it was a good start, and Fawful could've sworn he could breathe a lot clearer now without a lot of the dust. As he lay in bed, his bedroom door open, listening to Midbus snore from the other room, things felt right. For once, in what felt like years, he could finally say with just an inch of confidence that the world was spinning. Perhaps even in the right direction if he was so brave enough to think it. It was such an odd feeling to him, one he hadn't felt since he was a child, being held in Cackletta's arms. What he wouldn't give to have that feeling now, to be held in the arms of the woman who raised him. For a second, he had to wonder, would Cackletta have been fine with Fawful feeling the slightest bit okay around Peasley? What would she think about Midbus if she ever met him? It was these thoughts keeping him up at night instead of the usual nightmare or haunting image that made it feel like something horrible was getting buried away. Maybe it would come back, maybe it would stay down, but Fawful relished in this moment of pure joy that came by so infrequently.

Like a part of the darkness surrounding him was starting to go away, and he could see light over the horizon, where the sun was trying to come up. He couldn't see his sun yet, but his mindscape looked brighter than it had before. It felt like Dawn before dawn, when you could tell the sun was just about to come up, but you couldn't see it yet, and it wouldn't be there for another few minutes. Suddenly, Fawful was hit with a sort of inspiration. He wanted to make a gift for Midbus, something as a 'thank you for staying by my side' and a 'I am sorry'. Midbus was right about Fawful, he had a hard time staying idle, and not only had his hands wanted something to work on, but his heart and mind were set on finding something to do. Any sleepiness he felt prior to this feeling had been taken away with the tides of a busy bee and his busy mind. A wide smile, characteristic of the very essence of Fawful, spread across his face as he quietly left bed. He tiptoed through the hallway, making it past Midbus without any trouble and leaving home. Fawful began picking up different items outside, such as rocks and bendable twigs, even some clay where he could find it. Just anything that could help him build what he wanted to make before his brain went crazy from his sloth these past weeks. It took a few hours, but his hands were filled to the brim with building materials you could only find in a forest and his head was filled with plans and excitement. 

Making his way quietly back to his room he put all his materials on his desk and went back in the living room only to grab a candle off the table. Sight was something he needed for this, of course, and the stars couldn't light his way inside as they did outside. And thus, he thrust himself into his work, making something he knew Midbus would love. He was just happy to be working for a good cause after such a long period of stress. He couldn't take his eyes off his own project as he twisted pieces of twigs and used clay like a glue to hold it all together, using rocks he had found as support for the figure. If there was one thing Cackletta always complimented him on, it was his ability to see projects to the end. This, admittedly, was the reason for some sleepless nights such as this one, but as the night grew later, the candle burned brighter, and Fawful worked harder, he couldn't have felt more at peace. He put two tiny pebbles, rocks that had been chipped off of a rock that was chipped from another rock, into where eye sockets on the mini figure would be.

Fawful looked outside with bags under his eyes and he could swear he thought the sun was just about to rise over the horizon. The room had this vague light in it, where you could tell that the sun was about to rise, but it hadn't quite gotten there yet. He looked back at his creation as he had only now noticed that half the candle had burned out. It was a small figurine of Midbus just like a few others that he had made him before all the kingdom conquering business. He had missed making something for Midbus in all honesty, and he couldn't wait for Midbus to see it. He folded his arms over his desk and rested his head on top. He could feel himself drifting away as he tried not to. He wanted to stay awake to see Midbus' reaction, but the dream world called to him, and as he fell into a slumber, he could almost swear that someone had draped a blanket over him.


	21. Moonrise Meet Your Demise

As Fawful opened his eyes, he could feel pain wrenching in his gut like he had just been punched. Looking around, he was in Peach's castle again. The one from the time he had redecorated it. He didn't have much time to act as the feeling of getting socked in the stomach came back in the form of a real punch. He wrenched his head forwards to see it was Bowser's fist pounding into his stomach like a pack of bricks. He was in so much pain but he was still standing. Had he been hit with something like this normally, he probably would've died on the spot. He didn't feel right, and with each hit landing on his weak but strangely fortified body, he could feel a white fog coming over the world around him, and he couldn't think about it. It was like the world was trying to erase itself and his own thoughts, possibly even himself. Fawful tried to pull out a Ray gun, feeling fragile yet as impenetrable as a wall. A voice from within, one not of his own, was whispering to him. "You can beat him." "Do not fail me." "Shoot him." Each thought growing darker and darker in their supportive message as he wasn't even given the chance to think. He raised up his weapon, and fired.

The Koopa King seemed to take the hit like it wasn't just his fists that were made of bricks. Like he himself was more than just a wall, or an unmovable object, but he was an unstoppable force. The voice in his head only seemed to support him, despite how his shot seemed to not even make a dent. "Do not worry." "Let me show you how to do things." There was a hint of passive aggressiveness that Fawful could almost feel inside his skin as he was lifted into the air with his new powers. It felt inexplicably painful. His body wasn't meant to handle magic. None of Fawful had been crafted for using magic on his own and it was absolutely excruciating. As he summoned portals not of his own will, and threw dark magic into each one, he felt like his own body was trying to rip itself apart like paper being held by two opposite ends, unable to break as easily, and wobbling under the stress and pain. He wanted to cry so badly. He could feel tears try to whelm up as he was lowered to the ground, but the voice came to him again. "Don't worry." "His hit won't hurt half as much if you just listen to me." "Duck down." But Fawful didn't listen. He had an odd sense, like for a second, his head had control over itself, and his mind was trying to wake up right as he got seared in flames.

Still though, despite all the horrible pain and aching that rang through his entire body, he remained upright and on his feet. The world was now blindingly white though, as that stillness was broken, and he threatened to fall over on his side as he let out a sigh of pain that was quickly cut off. He couldn't think again. He wanted to cry so badly. As panic washed over him, he could feel his thoughts slowly getting mute and no change of emotion crossing his face. I'm going to die. He kept repeating in his head, over and over until he couldn't hear himself think. Until it wasn't himself thinking any longer. "Shut up." "SHUT UP!" "YOU FEEBLE MINDED FOOL SHUT UP!!" "If you can't do this...I'll do things, MY way!" The voice was screaming at him, overpowering all of his thoughts and casting his inner voice to the side along with his consciousness as he careened toward the ground and hit his head in the fall. The fog closed in, and Fawful was paralyzed in completely white surroundings, unable to feel his body no matter how hard he tried. His power he tried to hold now held him in a death grasp, and there was nothing he could do but suffer and wonder when it would all end.

He couldn't tell if his glasses were still intact. Was HE still intact? Questions started streaming in as his head finally gained some bearing. Had he disappointed Cackletta? He missed Cackletta. Would he be seeing her soon? Fawful hoped so. He wanted nothing more than to be held by...dare he say it. His mother. But that can't happen now. It'll never happen again. He tried to remember happy moments in his life. Moments where he laughed with Cackletta and had a great time. He knew that they had happened, but all of his thoughts went as dead silent as the beating in his chest. He waited and waited, but nothing came. He wanted to scream for the people in his life that he loved to come comfort him. That's hard to do when they're all dead isn't it? What a shame he never got along with people around him. What a shame that everything in his pathetic life led him to this. Fawful had cursed himself to a life of servitude to Cackletta, and even dragged his best friend into it. How horrible could someone be? Ask the people where he came from, certainly they would agree that his life was a pitiful freakshow from the start. Fawful could hear words around him that he wanted to say weren't true, even as he doubted his own claims. His heart began beating again, and for what felt like a million years, the world exploded. Fawful wondered, if this was the afterlife. If he had died, and this was his eternal torture. All he wanted to help his mother. All he wanted. It was all he ever wanted, even in his dying breath. And then, the world went black and cold. 

Fawful couldn't feel anything except the feeling of cold water against his back before he went completely unconscious.


	22. A Change of Scenery

Fawful woke up in cold sweat, shivering and having difficulty breathing. It was like thorns were piercing his heart, not metaphorically, but physically. For Fawful, it hurt to be alive for a few moments as the fear coated his whole body with tremors. Was he alive? He was in his bed, that's for certain, but he couldn't move. He didn't fall asleep in his bed, that much he remembered, so why was he in it. His rib cage felt like it was going to shatter into pieces like something was tightening around it and he tried anything to keep his mind off it. He heard talking in the other room. It sounded like Midbus and...Peasley…? Yes that was Peasley talking with him. Their voices were quiet, but Fawful felt a sense of urgency in their hushed tones that made his nerves come alive like a disconnected power line in the middle of a thunderstorm. He whimpered as he felt the vines tighten around his heart, making him feel weak. This was enough to make the light chatter in the other room come to a halt. Fawful knew from the slight shake that it was Midbus coming down the hall and who entered his room. "Hey, you up yet?" Midbus whispered. Fawful tried to move with all his might, but couldn't manage it, however, he was able to mumble a few words. "Midbus...am...help…" the word help came out slurred and messy, like he couldn't say it at all.

Midbus walked up with caution as Fawful felt more pain aching throughout his entire body now, that all came at a sudden halt as Midbus put his hand on Fawful's shoulder. All the sudden, all the pain that was shooting through him seemed to disappear. Even if Midbus' hand was cold, it was relieving, and shocked back whatever plant was living in Fawful away into its hiding hole for now. Fawful took labored breaths as he turned over in bed to look at Midbus, an act that seemed so impossible just seconds ago. He felt so warm and happy seeing Midbus there, a slight fuzzy feeling you get when you see a longtime friend if you will. He sat up in bed and Midbus spoke a question, "Fawful? Was everything alright there? You looked like…" Midbus turned his head away, looking at the window outside a second before looking back at Fawful and saying, "you...looked like you were in…pain." Fawful felt his chest, trying to look for the vines and thorns that had just tried to strangle him but it was like they were hiding in a place in Fawful's body even he wasn't aware existed. He stopped his search, his eyes pinned to the floor and at Midbus' feet, more specifically, before he looked up and Midbus' face and said, "Fawful thinks his chest was cramping." It clearly wasn't the response that Midbus expected, but was accepted nonetheless, "You feeling better now? You need some water for it?" Fawful shook his head no and said, "Fawful is feeling better. Thank you Midbus." Midbus didn't seem to understand why he was being thanked, but he nodded his head acknowledging it and said, "You're welcome buddy. Get your clothes on, something presentable, Prince Peasley has to tell you something."

That didn't sound good, but Fawful didn't comment on it as Midbus left the room and closed the door, allowing him to change. Once he got into his Wednesday finest, the same cloak he had worn all his life, and an elaborate outfit he wore for the last few days, he was out of his room and into the living room, where Prince Peasley sat with a paranoid look on his face. Peasley was bouncing his left leg as he sat down and turned his head to look at Fawful. Nothing about this felt right. He wasn't used to seeing this side of Peasley. All he knew of Peasley was a brave and stoic Prince who was a knight. Well, he also knew that Peasley was Gay, but it wasn't very important right now. Peasley continued to jump his leg up and down as he started to speak. "Hello Fawful…" he turned to look in the kitchen a second, his attention being attracted by a slight clang in there. Fawful tried to get a look at it too but The Prince turned back and said, "Oh don't worry, that's just Midbus. He's making Lunch." Lunch? Goodness he had slept in. How late did he stay up last night? Fawful turned his full attention back to Peasley, not wanting to think about it. There was an awkward silence before Peasley said, "So, you made Midbus a mini statue of him right? He showed me it. It isn't the first one you've made apparently." This couldn't have possibly been what he wanted to talk about. Fawful may have been completely and utterly unaware in a social situation, but he wasn't a fool.

"Was this what you were wanting to have speaking with Fawful for?" There was a bit of an uncharacteristic amount of business in Fawful's voice that made it shocking to the Prince. It caught him completely off guard and his leg bouncing stopped for a split second before it picked up again. He put his hands together and held them for a moment before he sighed and the leg bounces stopped. "Why don't you take a seat Fawful? This will make it… well it won't be as hard." Fawful's eyebrows narrowed as he walked over, took a small climb into the chair, and locked eyes with the anxious Prince. He could feel his own heart pulsing with echoes of fresh panic as the Prince said, "Well...you know how my mother was curious about who I'm visiting right? She wants to meet you because she's gotten suspicious that I'm up to something." The air itself carried a weight as nothing else stirred in the home after hearing that, not even Midbus in the kitchen. Fawful could feel his ache a bit in his chest, bringing back the vines taking hold as it tugged at his bones. Fawful was about to speak, but Peasley beat him to the punch. "There are a lot of things that could go down here, and none of the options I well...like." Peasley turned his head into the kitchen for a second, slowly turning his head back to Fawful as he spoke. "I could just never show up back at the castle, causing my mother to send all the troops on a search for me," he quietly murmured as he followed that up with, "We wouldn't want that…" before he was looking fully at Fawful who simply wanted to shrink down in his seat and said, "What do you want to do?" 

Fawful had to think on this one. In every option, it felt like there wasn't a choice where he could continue doing as he was doing without change in his life. He felt as if he was on the brink of something, though he couldn't tell what. Peasley could just never arrive again...but Fawful and Midbus would have to live off of beans and he knew well that only one of them could survive that. Perhaps Peasley went back with Midbus, but… no he might lose Midbus forever. Fawful wasn't certain if he could handle that, not again. Fawful could go and Midbus stayed, but he felt as if that answer would procure the same results as before, just with Fawful in jail instead of Midbus. Fawful turned his head towards the kitchen, feeling a sort of knot or lump his throat stopping him from speaking before he broke through it. He needed to. "Midbus...would you mind coming with Fawful…? He...Fawful doesn't want…" Fawful couldn't get himself to push out any more words. His eyes had drifted to the floor and he could tell out of the corner of his eye that Peasley began bouncing his leg again. Midbus quietly sighed before saying, "Whatever happens happens Fawful, and I don't want to risk losing you. I'm coming with." Fawful admired that part about Midbus, he who always spoke his mind. He liked it because of how much he had trouble doing it himself, it was like running a twenty mile sprint for Fawful.

Fawful sighed as he lifted his eyes off the ground to look at a nerve bent Peasley. Fawful felt the thorns try to take hold of him again, but they were dispelled with a wave of courage that washed over him. It may not be what anyone wants to do, but it's what he has to do. "Alright. Fawful is ready to leave then if Midbus is." Peasley looked up with shock and his leg stopped, "Wait? Are you sure, certainly there is a way to prolong this, we could just tell her you couldn't come and…" Peasley's voice faded out. Fawful looked determined, set in his answer and Peasley sighed. "Whenever you two are ready."


	23. A Quiet Kingdom

Once they had finished their silent and anxious lunch, they all three were heading out on the road, continuing their silence through the walk. Peasley was fidgeting with his hands, Midbus kept picking at his nails, and Fawful could feel himself clutching his cloak as he ignored with every bit of his power, those dark thorns trying to press into him, sapping his energy. Fawful felt like fainting on the spot, but he was committed. He would face the price of his crimes even if it meant spending the rest of his life in jail. He could see the Kingdom clearly in the distance and it was almost like it was threatening to break and fall on his head, even if he was too far for that to be possible. Peasley stopped at the entrance of the forest, or well, perhaps the exit from the direction they were standing. "Are you both still certain about this? We still have time to turn around, put it off for another day." Fawful knew that Peasley was asking the impossible, and Peasley knew it too, because he didn't even need an answer. "Sorry. Let's go" Peasley went on, this time a little fast, making it a little hard for Midbus to keep up as he normally didn't walk fast and Fawful had difficulty keeping up simply because of his small legs. It wasn't very long however, before the group reached the gates of the kingdom, and Peasley took a deep breath in, putting his hands on the gates to a world Fawful had known about his whole life, but still, even if he called it home, it was so foreign. "You two ready?" Midbus nodded and Fawful took a look at some of the faint outlines of people. As far away as they looked, this was the closest he had been to another citizen of the Beanish kingdom in such a long time. "Yes. Fawful is ready." Peasley looked back at the gates and pushed them open. They each began walking through.

It all seemed so loud as he could hear people ahead, talking, laughing, running around. It almost felt surreal to know that he could've been like this, just a normal person. He could've been laughing with them, but perhaps he was never meant for that life. Someone had to be the criminal. Someone had to do big things and have big consequences follow him. It was just the way things go, don't they? As they all started reaching the public eye, people went quiet. It wasn't like the other day when Fawful was rushing through and people went on with their business as usual, people were freezing up and watching Fawful with careful eyes. Some were looking at Midbus too, younger children, those who wouldn't remember Fawful or what he did, there was a sort of marvel in the children's eyes as they looked at Midbus. Any eye on Fawful, however, stared with horror, they all knew what he did, and they all seemed scared. A few parents were ushering their children inside, friends and neighbors gathered into groups, whispers were the only things traveling alongside the three of them. The loudest noise in the streets were Midbus' steps upon the cobblestone path, there was a slight rumble in the ground as they went along. Fawful knew now that no one had been staring at him when he passed through the kingdom, no one cared, because they couldn't see his face. Had anyone seen his face at that time, there would've been a countrywide search for him. 

This tension across the entire kingdom didn't stop until they were at the gates of the kingdom, where Fawful could quite possibly kiss a sweet goodbye to his freedom. He could feel fear come up in his chest as he stared at the building, the last time he was this close to it, he was… Fawful coughed up a bit of vile from his stomach from all the nerves he immediately wanted to spit it out however, as it burned worse than anything else that ever came back up. He couldn't swallow this back down. Fawful put his hand up a second to motion the group to wait a second as he rushed to a trash can and spat it out there where it belonged. He was going to head back quickly, but he stopped at seeing the color. It was black, pure black. Fawful backed away slowly as he shook his head and just thankful he got whatever, that, was out of his body. His entire body felt absolutely sluggish and horrible though right afterward. Perhaps he wasn't ready, maybe he was sick, but it was too late for that now. He was already at gates of his own personal nightmare, being watched and being imprisoned. His breaths grew heavy as he struggled to walk back to Peasley and Midbus. "Sorry, Fawful is ready now." Midbus shot Fawful an extremely concerned look as Peasley's eyes were pinned to the gate. This was it. Fawful's last few minutes of freedom.

The gates were ripped open as if it was hard for Peasley to manage. They walked straight past the guards and into the castle without a word, Fawful could feel the silence of hundreds of thousands of prying eyes watching him still as he walked past different Peas on his way. They each had a nervous look, followed by a small run as they tugged their friend along. He walked through the halls that had changed so much since the last time he was here. There were so many flower decorations. All yellow flowers of some kind, each one ranging in size and overall shade of yellow, but each decoration was made with the finest quality and had at least one yellow rose inside. Had his circumstances been any better, he probably would've felt tranquility in these halls. Sadly, criminals don't feel very calm at their last dinner as much as they are with the halls of their prison, and walking into the throne room, Fawful could feel himself die a little upon hearing the Queen's voice. "Hello Peasley, I hope you brought your fre-" she freezed in the middle of her words. "Ah. I see. Well son, you have some explaining to do later, but for now, allow me to deal out the law as I see fit. Alright?" Peasley nodded his head as he took steps back into the back corner of the room, fiddling with his hands. "Well then Fawful," she started, "It has been a long time hasn't it?"


	24. Judgement Day

Fawful could feel dread coming over him and his energy draining as he came face to face to the woman who would decide the consequences of his actions. He couldn't explain the energy drain, he really must've been sick to have such a drain like this. Fawful nodded his head to Queen Bean's question, afraid to speak up. She kind of laughed at this, giving Fawful's horror a bolster before she said, "Let's review some of your crimes then shall we? My father made sure when I was just a young bean that I learned my country's laws, ah, but I suppose you don't care about that." She shook her head, Fawful thought this to be awfully casual for a time such as this. Speaking to him like he was some sort of old friend. He was the one who tried to help overthrow her kingdom wasn't he? He felt like he was getting duped, and the real Queen was hidden somewhere. This was not the way he expected her to be at all. The Queen took a look at him and laughed for a second before she said, "Close your mouth, you're going to catch flies like that!" Fawful hadn't even noticed that his mouth was hanging open as far as it was. His attention broke from the way she was acting to the way he was acting as he snapped his mouth shut.

"Alright then Fawful, let's talk about crimes then. Accomplice to attempted overthrowing, threatening and shooting people with firearms, evading the law." Fawful could feel his actions weighing down on his back. He started to slouch over as he couldn't meet Queen Bean's eyes with courage. He kept waiting for more crimes to be listed off. Unleashing a deadly disease upon citizens, attempted murder, how about reviving an ancient evil and having almost ended the world? That was a good one to name off. He found it odd that Queen Bean was only naming off his crimes in this kingdom. "Well I guess that's about it, isn't it?" What. Fawful looked over at Midbus and turned around to look at Peasley. It seemed like both of them were just as shocked as he felt. Fawful began sputtering, he didn't get it. "B-but, Fawful has committed worse crimes, are you certain Queen Bean?" It had rushed out so fast, he couldn't stop himself from saying it. Midbus quickly turned to his best friend with a look that questioned Fawful's sanity as Queen Bean burst into a fit of laughter. She cried a few tears as she laughed before calming herself down and looking out upon the confusion in the room.

"You boys crack me up! I swear, I haven't laughed this hard since Peasley tried to sword fight a moth with a cardboard tube!" Peasley didn't even react to this. His mouth was as wide as Fawful's mouth was earlier. "Do you want a worse punishment for your crimes? I don't think I've ever seen a criminal eager for that before. Though, it isn't in my legal authority to hold you accountable for anything you do in another kingdom." The boys were all speechless. Queen Bean took this stunned silence in the wrong way and said, "Unless...you want to answer for yourself in the Mushroom kingdom…?" Fawful's eyes widened as he shook his head quickly and said, "No no no no no no! Thank you Miss Bean, Fawful is of thanking you for your generosity!" Fawful's thankfulness came off as a desperate attempt to save himself, and perhaps that's what it was. He couldn't believe for one second what was happening right before his own two eyes. Was he dying? Was this what a stroke was like? Could Beanish people even get strokes? Queen Bean couldn't help but let out a snort as before she spoke again. "I haven't even sealed out the price of your crimes! Don't call me generous yet, I'm still thinking about it." Queen Bean sat there in a silence of her own with a goofy look on her face, like she wasn't taking any of this seriously. Was that her natural thinking face? Fawful really hoped it wasn't, but the thought that she wasn't taking this all as heavily as she could, well, it wasn't a great thought to think someone was planning on executing him with a smile.

"Hm, you know what Fawful, I think I'll give you a slightly different punishment than what is usually given out for insubordination. As the son of a past friend of mine, consider it as my last gift to her." Fawful was having a hard time taking this all in. He knew his mother hated the Beanish royalty with a passion, but if Queen Bean considered her a friend, and OLD friend at that, this was just too much to accept all at once. Fawful felt like his head was going to explode as his legs were starting to waver from lack of any strength keeping them up. "You will be working in the close confines of this kingdom, living among the people and being under constant surveillance with one guard close by at all times. As I am aware, you also invent and build machines, correct?" Fawful looked up at her and he felt like mist had left his world. Wait was he… actually being spared? Would he be okay? "Y-yes Queen Bean! Fawful does many inventingness with his metals!!" She smiled a perfect grin, the kind you could only get from training as royalty for so long. "Good, as part of your new predicament, you will be repairing machines and making new ones per request for the kingdom. It will not shorten how long you will have to stay here, but it will offer a good pay. It's either that, or life sentence in jail, what's your pick." The last part was an obvious joke, based on her tone and also seeing as Fawful actually wasn't getting a choice in the matter.

"Alright, well that's enough for you Mr. Gerakobitz, isn't it?" Fawful still felt a little jarred from the events that transpired in the last few minutes. It did feel odd to hear his last name however, it wasn't the same as his mother's, he wasn't actually sure where it came from. Queen Bean turned to look at Midbus and said, "Unless you have done something in this kingdom I'm unaware of, there isn't anything that I can do in my legal jurisdiction." Midbus breathed a sigh of relief as he put his head down and Queen Bean said, "We will prepare a place for you two to stay while we find a suitable home to where we can keep an easy watch of you. Peasley, why don't you show them where they'll stay for now in the west wing, 7th room to the left, oh and thank you son, for being honest with me." Peasley nodded his head as he waved his hand for the two to come along. They followed Peasley and as soon as he reached the room and shut the door, all tension between them seized. Peasley started, "Oh...my goodness...I think I could've died in there…" Midbus followed with, "I can't believe it turned out this way." Fawful however, collapsed to the ground as his energy finally failed him. The two others in the room had quickly drawn their attention to this and ran to help him up as Fawful moaned, "Fawful wants a doctor…"


	25. Dooming Diagnosis

Fawful didn't have the energy to walk after he fell over like that, so Midbus had to carry him as Peasley rushed ahead to make sure there was a doctor around who could help, and luckily there was. It was quite surprising, but there weren't many doctors in the Beanish kingdom. There wasn't usually something a good amount of sun, water, and the right temperature couldn't fix for Beanish people. In the rare event that someone is actually sick however, it's very serious, and in most of those cases, life threatening. Because of the previously mentioned lack of patients, Fawful was able to be taken into the office as soon as he was carried there. Midbus propped him up carefully on the table where he assumed patients went, and left the room as carefully as he could, as to not knock anything over, and wait patiently outside the room with Peasley. Fawful felt horrible, it wouldn't be an understatement if he said he felt worse than death. He genuinely felt very sick, an oddity for his race. Fawful waited with his back against the wall with a slight painful feel in his breathing as it felt as if those thorns in his chest had tried to poke small holes in his lungs. It couldn't feel like the case, but it did feel as if something in him was attacking him in his lowest moments.

Fawful didn't have to wait long before the Doctor came bursting through the doors. She was a Beanish woman, nothing very distinguishing to her, besides the panic on her face. It was very characteristic of Beanish doctors to have this sort of worry, usually they had someone's life in their hands. Fawful wondered what a doctor felt when they failed their job of saving someone, he quickly marveled for a second, that being a human or toad doctor must be less stressful, but his thoughts went into a dim silence as he remembered Huegh, the toad he traveled with on the road, and how they were going to see their mother who had been infected with the blorbs. He sighed, thinking how he was a reason that medical professionals were probably all panicking. During all this thinking, the doctor looked up from her clipboard and took a few cautious steps backwards seeing her patient. She looked absolutely alarmed, and it seemed like she was the one person in the kingdom who didn't know he was here. "Well…" she whispered, "no one warned me about you…" she turned her head away, collecting her clipboard on the table Fawful was sitting on, making him realize that he wasn't on the patient desk at all, he was sitting on the counter where underneath, were all the tools that were used to diagnose, and perform a check up on the sickly. The Doctor looked over at Fawful, and with a nervous tone said, "Can you walk? I'm going to need you to change tables." 

Fawful nodded his head yes, as he hopped down onto the ground, and immediately wobbled his legs to the point where the doctor rushed over to hold him up. She walked Fawful carefully to the other side of the small room, and helped him climb up to the table. The two struggled, and Fawful was tempted to call Midbus in the room to help him, but a voice he didn't quite recognize whispered to him that he would only bother Midbus, giving him the sort of final push he needed to get up on the table. He didn't want to bother Midbus, he had already done so much for him. The Doctor turned back to her desk, opening the drawer and pulling out an assortment of tools, Fawful could tell she was stressed, simply because she kept sighing like she was exhausted, he wondered if she would lie to him about his results. In a way, the thought creeped in his mind that he deserved it. He tried to push it away, as the doctor spoke, taking her stethoscope first from the arrangement of tools, she introduced herself. "My name is Adzuki Lentil, please, call me by Dr. Lentil." Fawful took note of her name as she walked up and said, "I'm going to check your heartbeat, just simple check up stuff to see what's wrong with you. Basically, just normal doctor things, all I ask from you is to move when I ask, and stay still so this can go as quickly as possible, okay?" Fawful nodded again, not wanting this to take any longer than it should. Even if a part of himself wanted to believe she wanted to speed this along to give him the wrong diagnosis, the other part of himself said that she simply wanted to get this done quickly because this was an uncomfortable situation for her. He probably would've felt unsafe with himself if he was in her shoes. 

The entire procedure took about perhaps twenty minutes, maybe longer since he only noticed the clock over the door when she had already checked his pulse and looked into his mouth with a flashlight. The only oddity she remarked about through the process, was how his throat was oddly dark, that she couldn't see far in it, and could only spot what she needed to see. Nevertheless, she didn't let her stop her as she did her job with the suspected amount of effort a doctor put in. Getting her job done in an orderly fashion. Fawful actually felt a little comforted by how happy she seemed when she said, "Alright! Next we'll need to take two types of X-Rays, then you'll be able to leave. One will be for checking your skeleton for any damage, and the second for seeing if your magic energy is in check." Fawful watched the Doctor leave as he felt a sort of hopefulness bringing him joy after such a hard time. Perhaps he had only collapsed from nerves? It felt like the only plausible solution he could come up with. There was a faint smile on his face as Dr. Lentil came back in with two screens for X-rays, just like how she mentioned. She came over to help Fawful get up, but he said, "No no, Fawful is having many beliefs that he can stand up." She backed off a second, but standing close nearby in case he fell over anyhow, but he made it seemingly fine to the screens. Fawful was quite confident that he was going to be okay, he couldn't wait to tell Midbus about the news. 

The first X-Ray, the one for his bones, had been taken after Dr. Lentil moved out of the room, and came back into view when the photo was finished taking. She went into front of the screen, instructing Fawful not to move before she said, "You look to have a few fractured ribs, but as long as you don't take any sort of blows to the stomach area, you should be fine." She wrote down some notes on her clipboard before she took the bone X-Ray out of the way, moving it back out of the room, and getting the magic X-Ray set up as fast as she could. Moving out of the room again, she took the pictures and headed in. He expected her to simply send him out and be done, but she was quiet for a moment, like stuck in a trance upon seeing something incredible. She quietly scribbled down notes as quickly as she could, and headed towards the door before saying, "Stay there." And left without another word. She was gone for a few minutes, and could only hear when Midbus was talking. He spoke in a hushed tone however, like he was trying not to be heard. Finally, after waiting a few minutes in the same spot, Dr. Lentil came back into the room with a worried expression that could've been considered more worried than the one she wore when she saw Fawful in her office. She took a hard swallow looking down at the ground, and then looked up at Fawful with a kind of look that was reminiscent of a worried mother as she said, "Go ahead and head out, you're doing just fine. Maybe spend some time with family and friends, do all you can to be happy, that's all I have to say. Fawful nodded his head, and started to leave the office. With the expressions on Midbus and Peasley's face following suit with the doctor's worry, he couldn't help but feel like the last thing she told him was more than just a simple send off.


	26. Delectable Discussion

Peasley showed Fawful where he was going to stay for the foreseeable future with a urgentness in his pace. Midbus followed closely behind Fawful, almost as if to ensure he could keep up with the pace, seeing as he kept falling behind. Fawful was practically out of breath, and a little too exhausted from running with his tiny legs to think about how panicked he should've been. The streets were quiet like how he had been there last time, but it wasn't as bad this time. However, there was an indescribable silence that kept coming with Fawful, like the people were watching a car wreck that disappeared as it went by. The silence still felt eerie to him, and he wondered how long it would be that he would have to go place to place with a thousand pairs of eyes looking at him wherever he went. It was uncomfortable, but soon he was back in the castle, and back in his room, at the start of his whole medical debacle. Peasley and Midbus shared a nervous look back and forth as Fawful went over to sit in a chair placed at a desk in the room. Fawful rested his head back a bit, trying to catch his breath from the running before Midbus asked, "Are you feeling alright?"

Fawful had to breathe a bit, his breaths heaved a little before he came out with his response. "Fawful feels...a little thirsty, but he will have wellness." Midbus kind of had a sort of shocked look before he said, "Well, there has to be some sort of drink around here right?" He said with a nervous, but playful chuckle. Fawful took a second to look at Peasley as Midbus turned his own head to face him. Peasley's grim expression turned into the same sort of smile as he noticed eyes were on him now, and he said, "Well, is there anything you like? It wouldn't be hard to get, especially for me." He had his own nervous laugh, this one did have half the playfulness as Midbus' laugh, but it conveyed the same emotion nonetheless. Fawful caught onto this, but he didn't want to say anything, so he instead wondered what his favorite drink was. It didn't take Fawful very long to realize that he never really had a favorite drink. Though, there was a drink that held special memories for Fawful. There was a drink native to the Beanbean kingdom, a fizzy delight from the sweetest and most nutritious beans. A Chuckola Cola.

Fawful spoke up with excitement, despite the tension in the room, as he couldn't wait to tell them a story. "The Cola of Chuckola! Fawful enjoys that with very muchness!" His little outburst cut the tension a bit, Midbus with a face full of surprise, and Peasley's doing the same before he carried a bright smile on his face. "Really? I could definitely do that. MidBud, you stay with him alright?" Midbus shook his head and Fawful sat there confused as Peasley left the room. Fawful cocked his head to the side like a did "MidBud?" Midbus still had his surprised expression until he spoke again. "Oh yes, we started to talk to each other while we were waiting for you to come out from the doctor. Did you know this guy has been training with swords his whole life?" The disbelief in Midbus' voice made Fawful giggle. It was odd to know that there was someone out there who wasn't aware that Peasley had mastered swordplay. "Silly Midbus! Fawful had the knowing! He has been having the knowing!" Midbus snorted, he shook his head laughing a little and then said, "Whatever bud, but I'm MidBud now, and you're my BeanBud." It was Fawful's turn to laugh now, BeanBud was such a pleasant nickname, even if it could apply to both him and Peasley. 

Peasley came back into the room with three drinks, Chuckola Cola in the glass bottles that had engravings that felt nice to take your fingers through. He was notably a bit less tense, and as he looked at the happy faces around the room, it put him at ease, like for a moment he could forget whatever problem was troubling him. "Alright I'm back, we can just sit down and-" for a moment he looked surprised, "Oh! Oh I thought there were more chairs   
in here…" he went over to put the drinks on the desk and was about to head out to grab some chairs before Fawful suggested, "How about we have the sitting upon the floor?" For a second, Peasley had this realization himself, and scratched the back of his neck with a silly smile. "Oh you're right, I suppose we could do that. Jeez, that was silly of me wasn't it?" His reaction gave Fawful a laugh as he took his bottle with a slight difficulty due to his height, and sat down in the middle of his room with his legs crossed over each other and watched as the other two got their own drinks and sat in their own ways. Midbus sat the way you would place a Teddy bear on a bed, while Peasley sat with his legs to the side, in what could best be described as how a mermaid might sit. 

Fawful spoke with childish excitement brimming in his voice and said, "Do you know why Fawful had picking of this drink?" Midbus shook his head no, while Peasley suggested "You have an addiction you want to admit to?" Playfully. Fawful's high pitched laughter rang through the room. In any other scenario, it wouldn't have been funny if he had been told this, but for some reason, just hearing from it from Peasley seemed to make the words feel better. "No! fufufu~! Fawful has the story for sharing!" Peasley reeled back from the laughter, but he leaned in a bit, eager to listen. Midbus pried the cap off his drink, lifting it up a bit before saying, "Hey wait, is this the one about that Soda making place in the forest?" Peasley looked up with a fascinated and intrigued look, very clear sparkles in his eyes as Fawful said, "Shush! Have the shushing!" And Peasley quickly followed with, "Do you mean Chateau de Chucklehuck?" Peasley spoke with an accent as he said the name of the location, almost seamlessly into his sentence as one might expect from a Prince. Fawful waved his arms back and forth as he continued to shush Peasley with a smile. "You will not be of spoiling Fawful's story!" He said with justification. 

Fawful loudly cleared his voice, "So, when Fawful was of young age, he would have many adventures in the forest he lived in. These were not long, because Fawful does not like the outside, but! He would spend many of these trips going to uh…" Fawful took a second thinking about how to say the word. "Cha- chatwo? Chatoe-? Soda place." Peasley softly giggled at his failed pronunciation, but seemed rather happy with his attempt. "Well, Fawful went there, and sometimes-" Midbus gave him that look, that look that he knew he was telling a little white lie, where he looked down slightly and lifted his right eyebrow. You'd think that would be an odd thing to notice, but Fawful only noticed it after the one time he lifted the other eyebrow once. To put it simply, there was something that felt off when he did. "Well...hehe...always. Fawful always did it when he went there. Uh, have taking in part in the thievery, that is. Well, he was always noticed! And Fawful! Always had the running away!" Fawful looked awfully proud of his childish antics from years ago, even if he just admitted to crime. Peasley started, "Careful, I might tell my mom on you!" Fawful couldn't tell that was meant to be a joke, his years of homeschooling took the benefit of knowing what that joke would have meant. However, it made Peasley go quiet long enough for Fawful to finish his story when he realized Fawful didn't get it. "Well, he always brought a very fizzy drink to Cackletta. Fawful does not thinking that she had likingness of it, but she was very happy to have receiving of a gift." 

Midbus leaned in a little and said, "That's not the worst I've ever heard someone say they've done as a kid, you want to hear about the guy who tried to steal chicken eggs from a pet store? It didn't even have chickens, so it wasn't a very eggcellent plan." The two beans hollered with laughter, and sharing this talk among friends, old and new, Fawful could swear he felt a kind of joy in his heart that he swore he never felt before. 'This was happiness is meant to be.' He thought. The three laughed together, speaking more about fond memories they had as the sun fell under the horizon and called their cheerful chatter to an end. Fawful looked at his bottle as they left, he only then realized that he was so engrossed in conversation that he forgot to open his bottle.


	27. Double Edged Sword

For perhaps the first time in a month, Fawful didn't have a nightmare to shake him when he woke up. He remembered falling asleep without a single trouble on his mind, and although the feeling when he woke up couldn't exactly be described as refreshed, he felt a lot better about his current state than most other times he had woken up recently and that in itself was quite a relaxing feeling as he laid in bed. He considered just going back to sleep, something he himself thought was a lazy thing to do but with how horrible his other last sleeps had been, he thought he deserved something of a good sleep. Sadly he didn't get much of a choice in the matter as he started drifting away and heard a knock at the door and a deep familiar voice behind it. "Hey Bud, you up?" It was Midbus. Fawful stirred a bit, making a sort of loud groan that meant to mean 'no' but it came out sounding like he was a cat who had just gotten stepped on. There was a moment of silence before Midbus repeated his question, this time with more concern. "Fawful bud, you alright there? You up?" This time, Fawful sat up in bed a bit and rubbed his eyes sleepily as he said, "Give Fawful… one minute…" For a second, Fawful didn't think he spoke loud enough for Midbus to hear through the door, but Midbus' response proved that theory wrong. "Oh alright then, I'll wait for you out here then." Fawful could almost swear he felt a small rumble from Midbus right after, but perhaps he was imagining things. 

Fawful got up slowly, and out of bed as his sluggish mood dragged him to a dresser where he put on a white button up shirt, the kind you would wear to go meet someone's parents. For once, he had to remark that this clothes might've been a little small for him. He figured it was for the Peas, which was why he thought this castle had clothes around his size on hand. At least, he was hoping that was the reason, as he found it particularly less than ideal to be wearing someone's clothes from when they were children. Despite the clothes being a little tight on the arms, it came down past his knees, and because of this, he only put on shorts underneath them. Fawful was now ready, if not a little tired, and started heading towards the door when a horrid thought creeped into his mind. How could Midbus even begin to forgive him? He had almost killed Midbus by his own hands, what if he had come to hit his head against a wall, what if Midbus came here to strangle him, what if Midbus came to seek revenge- as multitudes of haunting thoughts surrounded his head, he could feel his energy draining and he collapsed on the floor. "Bud?!" He heard Midbus call through the other side of the door.

Midbus didn't wait for a response as the door swung open and Fawful felt the ground rumble as he charged forward and scooped the little man up in his arms. He could feel himself coming back to reality as Midbus hugged him and patted his back slowly before rubbing it a bit. "Shh...shh...it's going to be fine… you'll be fine Fawful…" His voice was comforting to Fawful and it silenced those thoughts in his head, even if he could feel the urgency in his words. There were a few moments where he could feel his hurried thoughts try to come back, but nothing resurfaced. Fawful eventually, after some time, put an arm around Midbus about as well as he could. He just wanted a hug at this point, something to make him feel secure. They held places like that for a while before Midbus sighed in relief and let up his hug a bit. "You doing okay little guy? Not feeling sick anymore?" Fawful nodded as he said, "Fawful is of having wellness… thank you Midbus." Midbus smiled as any sign of panic washed away and he asked. "Do you want me to carry you, or can you walk?" Fawful turned his head in confusion, "Carry? Where might Midbus be- WOAH!" Midbus quickly lifted Fawful up, excitement brimming in his voice as he said, "You'll see!" As he ran out of the room, carrying a very bewildered Fawful all the way to the castle's courtyard.

By the time Midbus slowed down to a stop around the hedges of flowers, Fawful was laughing and squirming to get out of Midbus' hold. "Have the letting go of Fawful! Where has Midbus taken him?!" Midbus slowly put Fawful down, making sure that he could stand on his own before saying, "Walk through the garden, we have a surprise for you." Fawful would've asked who Midbus was talking about, but as he traveled through the yellow rose garden, he had a feeling who he might see on the other side. Midbus followed closely behind as Fawful admired the flowers on both sides to him. Every once and awhile, he could see other flowers mixed in with the Roses, that almost blended in because of how they were the same color. Fawful knew a few of them, like Marigolds and Bellflowers. He wasn't certain how they all managed to be about the same shade of yellow, but it was quite beautiful nonetheless. Walking into a wide open area in the courtyard, his guess was correct. Peasley was sitting on a bench against a wall and was dulling the points on a few wooden swords. Peasley had almost not noticed Fawful at all, or even Midbus for that matter until Fawful was only a few feet away.

Looking up, he seemed quite surprised as he put down the toy sword and placed it by his right side, and with a kind smile said, "Oh hello! I didn't expect you to come so early, I hadn't finished preparing the practice swords." Practice swords? Fawful cocked his head in an innocent confusion as he said, "Practice? But Fawful thought Peasley did not have needing of practice?" Peasley chuckled for a second before he said, "Well, everyone needs to keep practicing, that's why I used to go out to those woods each day to...ah!" He stopped himself as he started to ramble, but continued on with his main point. "No no, today, you'll be practicing!" Fawful was alarmed by this, he hadn't agreed to fight Peasley with a sword. "Uh...Fawful has never used a sword before…" to which Peasley responded, "Well, neither had I at one point, we all start somewhere, come on," he offered Fawful a wooden sword, "just try it? You can teach me how to build machines in return." Fawful weighed his options, he felt quite nervous to pick up the sword, but was equally as excited to show someone how he made machines. It was a sort of trade off, and one that Fawful accepted as he shakily picked up a sword. Peasley was practically beaming at the sight of this, as he stood up, and placed his extra swords off to the side. Peasley opened his mouth, but it seemed as if Midbus stole the words from them as he yelled, "Wooo! Go little bud, you can take him!" Prompting Fawful to snort a little as he was consumed with giggles from how silly Midbus was being. "Hey now, he's just a beginner, we'll have to see about that one, Midbud!" Peasley exclaimed. 

Fawful ended up training longer than he thought he would. A newfound respect for swordplay struck him as he realized that it wasn't just a physical activity, but there was thinking involved as well. Midbus cheered him on whenever he'd block or strike back, and even the one time he had managed to hit Peasley's arm. By the time they sat down on the bench, two and a half hours had passed, Fawful's arms were exhausted, and he was panting heavily out of his mouth while Peasley was taking deep breaths of his own. "You two tire yourselves out?" Midbus asked playfully. Fawful nodded his head while Peasley laughed for a second in exasperation. "Yeah I'll say. Fawf, Midbud, you two want a bite to eat?" Fawful smiled wide at the thought of lunch and nodded his head seemingly with a new energy behind it. He couldn't wait to get a bite of something to eat. Midbus spoke for the both of them when he said, "Oh I'd love to, do you mind if I go ask the people in your kitchen to make something?" Peasley shook his head and replied, "Oh not at all! Go right on ahead." Midbus gave Peasley a thumbs up before he made his way out of the courtyard, Peasley's face growing more dim with every second of him leaving. Fawful wasn't certain, but he swore he thought he saw Peasley fidgeting with his hands before he spoke. "Um…Fawful…?" Peasley asked, his sudden nervousness feeling as if it came suddenly out of left field. "Yes Peasley?" Fawful inquired, wondering why his tone got so serious. 

"Do you...do you want to know what the doctor found?"


	28. The Things You Lost

For a second, Fawful couldn't believe his ears. He had already forgotten about the doctor's appointment yesterday, he had just been having such a good time. For a second, it poked around in his mind, did he really want to know? Why was Peasley so nervous to tell him? Certainly, he deduced, the doctor would have told him if there was an immediate threat of any kind right? His thinking for such a long time had prompted Peasley to lean in a little as he continued to fidget with his hands. Fawful opened his mouth, uncertain of whether he was making the right choice. "Fawful...yes. Fawful would like to have knowingness." Peasley looked deeply saddened by the answer, and there was a kind of worry plaguing his eyes, but there wasn't any amount of surprise. Perhaps Peasley already knew what his answer was going to be before he asked, and he sighed as he hunched over a little, looking down at the floor and avoiding any eye contact. He kept still for a moment, considering his words before he said to Fawful, "Do you know the effects magic can have on someone's body?" Fawful wasn't sure about this anymore, and yet he continued looking for his answer. "It hurts Fawful to use. Why?" Peasley looked over at Fawful for a second, before he went back to his hunched over position. "Well you...you see...Fawful…" Fawful wondered if he was imagining things when he heard Peasley gulp a second. "You...Fawful...um…" He was starting to shake a bit now. Peasley closed his eyes tight for a moment, taking a deep breath before he turned his head to look Fawful in the eyes. 

"The doctor thinks that...the Dark Star is still in your body." Fawful's mouth went agape, and his eyes widened, he trembled a moment, and could feel that horrible, familiar dread creep over him. "W-what…?" Fawful whispered, unable to believe what he had heard. Peasley rose up sitting straight up now and quickly waved his hands back and forth and said, "Well, she uh, Midbus didn't want you to know because he knew how scared you get, and he didn't want you to um...live your…" Fawful then felt terror wash over him. Live his what? His teeth chattered a little bit before he himself swallowed and with an unintentional tone of anger he said, "What? Live Fawful's what!?" Peasley went wide eyed, he reeled back a little and went quiet for a second before he shook his head. "No, I shouldn't have told you, please just forget-" Fawful stood straight up, tears starting to fill his eyes, "No! Fawful wants...needs to know!" Everything went silent between the two of them as Fawful began breathing hard as if these were the last breaths he would take, and from what he discovered next, they might as well have been. Peasley quietly spoke, keeping his eyes to the floor in shame. "Your...last...days." Fawful looked at Peasley with disbelief and a bit of betrayal in his heart. He couldn't believe it. This was why they were so nice to him. They felt sorry for him. 

Fawful opened his mouth to retort, he wanted to be mad at Peasley, but those thorns poked straight into his heart again. It hurt worse knowing what it was now. The Dark Star was trying to kill him. It never died. It was actually attacking him, he hadn't been imagining it, that's why his puke had been black, that's why he was collapsing. This was why he was dying. Fawful fell to his knees and began shaking again, he didn't want to die here. Peasley jumped to his feet and tried to help Fawful up, but Fawful backed up on his knees, crawling backwards before he got to his feet with any strength he had left. He started stepping backwards even further. He had heard enough. His breaths heaved as he and Peasley looked each other in the eyes. He swore, just for a moment through his cloudy eyes, that Peasley too had been crying. Then he turned his back on him and ran. His steps charged harder than they ever had before as Peasley's call for him to stop fell of deaf ears. He wasn't going to die here. He didn't want to die, but if he was given the choice to pick where, he wanted to be home. He wanted to be surrounded by the things he loved his whole life. He blew past several people as he went down the halls and out the door, through the kingdom with those same eyes that would've never seen him with the same admiration as he did them, through the woods and past the animals who could never comprehend what was going on in his head.

And then he saw home. On the day Cackletta died, he didn't want to believe it at first. As he slowed down to the door and felt his lungs screaming at him to stop, he breathed hard as he slumped over and opened the door. It wasn't quite as dusty as he remembered, nor as dirty, but as he felt his heart pounding in his chest, he just wanted the Dark Star to finish its work. He laid down on the floor and waited, and waited, and waited. He continued waiting until nothing changed. He lifted himself up into a sitting position and began to look around at the furniture. The broken clock, the dinner table that was so close to the door, a shelf of books near the kitchen door. This was his home, and his soon to be grave. This was where he was raised, this was where Midbus found him, this was where they all cleaned together. For a moment, as he recalled the cleaning, he had a curious thought. It was odd how people were nicer when they pity you, wasn't it? He stood up and looked around a little more, absorbing the calming scenery where he learned how to walk, talk, run, read, write, tie his laces, everything. He recalled the woman who taught him all of this and her name felt like an old friend rather than the one of the mother he lost. He looked up at the door to her room, he would've gotten in trouble for opening that door, but with the eternal punishment of death looming closer, he didn't care anymore. He walked slowly up to the door, looking at the doorknob for the longest time, his hand shivering as it approached closer, until for the first time he had his hand on it.

He turned the knob, and opened the door.


	29. I'm Sorry She Left So Soon

Fawful was hit with a rush of spices and the odd smell of smoke as he entered the room. Compared to his room, it was about twice the size. The floorboards creaked from age as he stepped in further. It was entering a whole new world, and all of this was separated by a single door. Bookshelves lined the walls with old tomes, he walked by each one, bringing his look across each one knowing that Cackletta must have read each one at least once at some point. They were all books about magic, forbidden, powerful, or even magical creatures. Looking at all the books, he noticed one on top of the shelf, he recognized this right away, as something Cackletta did when a book she was reading was important. She would leave the book out where she could see it and look at it later. The question of what this book could've been scratched at his head with curiosity, and he couldn't help it as he began to climb up the bookshelf, being mindful of any books along the way and crawling his way on top of the shelf. It was almost funny, seeing as he had just enough room to sit on top of the bookshelf. He grazed his hand on the ceiling, before he looked at the book and was shocked by what the book was. It was a photo album. He picked it up and put it into his lap and just stared at it for a minute. He figured that whatever was in here, it must've been about spells or magic or anything else of the sort. He was wrong.

Opening up the pages, a bittersweet feeling held his heart as he saw pictures of himself. There were baby pictures from the first day he learned how to walk. Pictures of Cackletta holding him as a baby like a mother would. There were other pictures of him playing with crayons, showing Cackletta something he made for her, even one from when he was little, and determined to make them all a meal despite how he only knew how to make sandwiches. Even though he still messed up with making one at that age, Cackletta still ate what he made. He blinked away tears as he started seeing notes on the side of each picture, like "Look at my little inventor!" and "Such a promising little bean!" Written in Cackletta's cursive. There were other pictures, like his first real invention, the ray gun, and him staying late up night to work on something. It was kind of funny how all these photos were all candid, and how he always seemed busy in them. There wasn't a second that he hadn't been working in these photos and seeing himself like this made his heart feel light yet held down. Cackletta thought this book was important, and by some extension, she thought he was important. He had gotten halfway through the book when all the pictures stopped. It ended on his eighteenth birthday, the one photo he remembered her taking of him. It had been a little more than ten years now since that photo was taken. He took the photo out of its slip and examined his beaming face from when he was younger, and so much happier. He wondered for a moment, if there was a chance that if she was still alive, he could've had more photos in this book, but it was too late now. Not just for Cackletta, but for himself. 

He tucked the photo into his pocket with a sigh and looked around the room a little longer. He saw Cackletta had a small bed, a fairly small bed for her height anyhow, and a desk, with papers strewn about. Then, he noticed something odd about the papers, there was one separated from the others placed in the middle of the desk. It looked like a letter Cackletta forgot to mail from where he was sitting. His wonder grew, he climbed back down the bookshelf and with his hand in his pocket, grazing over the picture, he walked over to the desk. Climbing into the chair, he saw a letter addressed to him. He took it in his hands and examined it with confusion. Why would Cackletta write a letter to him? He was her son after all. The letter said,

"Hello son, if you're reading this, that means my plan failed." There was a note written to the side that said, 'note to self: burn this if what I wrote above does not apply'. "Fawful, I have cast so many fantastical spells in my lifetime, but there is nothing more incredible than watching a child mature into an adult. You gave me the chance to take on a bigger challenge than summoning any monster has ever given me. If my plan failed, then there's a good chance I'm not alive anymore, and if that's the case, then I'm sorry. You lived a life far different than any other Beanish child your age and for that, I can express no deeper sorrow. You never had the chance to make friends like a normal child would, but I gave you all that I could as a mother instead. Goodness, it feels odd writing that doesn't it? I've never called you my son, and you've never called me your mother, but I think it's quite obvious what I was to you even if we never put it into words, but since we haven't done it before, I'll write it down here. Fawful, I have never felt more joy in my life then when I got to be your mother. You're the most vibrant and colorful thing this world has given me and if someone ever took that from you, it would be a death sentence, for not only you, but me. You're an amazing child with so many talents Fawful, and if I really have died, I want you to continue pursuing them. Not for me, but for yourself, because you have so much promise. You could take the world by storm all your own, and perhaps you will.

I love you Fawful. Don't you ever forget that.

-Love, your mother, Cackletta"

For a moment, Fawful began sniffling, and then he quietly started crying, before he held the note close to his heart and began sobbing like someone told him that it was finally okay. He had never felt so happy and yet so upset at the same time. He wanted nothing more than to hug his mother at the moment. He wanted his mom near him to give the love he had missed for ten years. A decade without her. It had really been that long. As he wailed in his sorrow he heard a knock on the door prompting his head to turn and look towards it. Outside Cackletta's door was the real world, the last place he might ever be if he took this chance. He could feel something trying to grab him, hold him back from answering the call as he continued staring at the door. A scraggly voice whispering into his ear as he could feel himself getting weaker. It begged him to keep still, to remain where he was for the rest of his life, however long that might be. As he got up it screamed, and told him how useless this would be. He continued walking forward, and the voice howled with anger, bartering with him to stay, telling him that death would be quick and easy. But Fawful didn't want that, and as Fawful raced out of the grasp of the familiar voice telling him to give up, he raced towards the front door. He finally recognized the voice. It was The Dark Star trying to get him to give up. His breaths grew shaky as he continued to escape the hold of that monster. He didn't want to die cold. He wanted to die warm within the arms of someone he trusted. No matter who was at the door, it didn't matter now, what mattered was finding peace one last time. He took hold of the doorknob, and turned it one last time, opening it to meet a pair of faces that were just as scared as he. 

It was Midbus and Peasley, and before they could say a word, he raced into their arms like it would be the last time they would ever be all together.


	30. Look A Little Closer

Fawful kept his hold on his friends tight, scared to let go of them. "Woah woah-!" Midbus started with shock before he slowly brought all three of them closer in a hug. Fawful had never felt so comforted in his life since the days he had Cackletta by his side. Peasley's hug was warm, but he hadn't expected Midbus to be cold. It was no fault of Midbus, and Fawful knew that it was his fault that he was like this, but Fawful didn't care any longer. Despite how he shivered in Midbus' hold, there was an odd warmth from his own heart that comforted him, and even if he knew that this day could've very well been his last, it didn't matter to him right now. He was right where he wanted to be, and even if he didn't have his mother any longer, he still had people who loved him. It was an odd thought for Fawful not only to consider at this moment, but accept. Fawful rubbed his head into Midbus' shoulder and quietly asked, "How did Midbus and Peasley have the finding of Fawful?" Peasley released his hug a little before stating, "If I'm going to be honest, I just thought you wanted to go home one last time…" Fawful almost found this funny. He had been right. It was odd how Peasley already knew that much about him from this short of time, but the truth was, he hadn't just started getting to know him now, they already knew each other from ten years ago from when it all started. Perhaps even longer before. Fawful wouldn't ever know for sure if Peasley knew him from long before, because that didn't matter now. That was who he was, not who he is.

They all kept in a silent hug for a while before Fawful finally released his grip, and the other two followed suit. Fawful was put down to the ground and they remained quiet for a moment. "So," Midbus started, "Is there anything you want to do before you… well… are gone?" Fawful wasn't certain. He turned to look back at Cackletta's room for a moment, which prompted the other two to look at where his eyes went, the two seemed equally interested in the room but kept their attention on Fawful. He knew he wanted to do something that would make his mom proud, but there wasn't much earth shattering things you could do in a day. With his own talents out the question, he wanted to do something that he had never been able to do instead. He wanted to read the books in his mother's room. "Fawful...is of having want to read." He turned away from his friends and started heading into Cackletta's room. The moment he was inside, he noticed that his friends didn't follow, both had anxious looks on their faces. "Hey...Fawful?" Peasley started, "Is it really fine for us to come in?" Fawful looked to the doorway where the two of them stood, they both seemed a little nervous, but hopeful. Fawful didn't know why, but their hesitation didn't make him feel scared, instead, he felt calm. There was no need to be scared of this room anymore for fear of getting in trouble, in fact this room provided the biggest solice he could've ever received in his biggest moment of fear and heartache. There was nothing in here that could hurt him besides what was already inside of him. Fawful looked up to them with a kind smile and said, "Don't have the worrying! Come in!" This reassurance was all that they needed to take cautious steps inside, their tense shoulders eased upon entry as they began looking around.

Fawful began looking through the books, seeing if he could find something he might like, the other two examined books of their own, but something shocked Peasley. "Fawful, are these all magic books?" He asked. Fawful thought it was an odd question, was it not to be expected that a witch have books on magic? "Yes? Mother has a bunch of magic books that are of having her possession." Peasley went quiet for a second, but as Fawful looked at him, he could tell that gears were turning in his head, and a hopeful look spread across his face. "So...would you argue to say she has books on magic creatures too?" Fawful watched as Midbus froze in place, and suddenly everything in his head clicked too. It surged a bit of hope on him as he said, "Y-yesing! Mother just might!" Midbus turned over to the two of them, hopelessly hopeful and said with inspiration, "Peas are you trying to say that there might be books on the…" Peasley nodded his head quickly and said, "The Dark Star. Yes. We have a job to do then, come on, let's pick off every book off the shelf that could possibly pertain to that beast!" It was then how fast the two took to looking through the books that really spoke to Fawful. They cared. After all he put them through, they cared. It was so touching that it almost sent Fawful to tears. He couldn't believe it. He turned back over to the books to begin searching, he had people who wanted to make sure he would be okay, and that felt like something to live for, at least for as long as he could. 

It took the whole afternoon getting books out to read, but by the end there was a sizable amount, about thirty books, it was turning dark however, so Midbus said, "I'll make dinner, once we get done eating, Pea and I will look through these books for a solution, you just rest." Peasley nodded his head to accept the plan, "I already told my mother I might be gone for a day, so that'll be fine. Fawful, let's just stay outside a bit." Fawful wasn't opposed to this. He had a feeling that they were going to try and comfort him either way they could, and he wasn't quite complaining. He nodded his head in agreement, and headed outside to stand and watch things move around with Peasley. There was a comforting quietness between them as they watched the sun start to go down. Fawful breathed it all in before he decided to say something he believed he might never get the chance to do ever again. "Fawful thinks you have had the turning out quite fine."


	31. All The Things I Never Got To Say Before

For a moment, Peasley didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't react until seconds later when his eyes widened and his mouth went agape. "H-huh? What did you say?" His tone made him sound surprised and shocked. Fawful hadn't expected that sort of reaction, so for a second, he wondered if Peasley heard him right. "Fawful has the thinking that you turned out with fineness-" Peasley quickly shook his head and said, "No I-" before he cut himself off and shut his mouth. Fawful didn't understand what he meant and turned his head a little to the side. Peasley took a deep breath and said, "Sorry that was just...unexpected is all." The last sunbeams of the day were poking through the trees, and Fawful' eyes followed them wordlessly as Peasley said, "You...really think that? Why?" It seemed like such a simple question, but Fawful couldn't even begin to imagine how he would explain it. It was hard enough to get his words out on a normal day, now he had to describe something that he had only come to the conclusion of not even a week ago. He continued to look at the trees, as a few leaves fell down and fluttered to the ground along with a short cold breeze that nipped at him a bit.

"Well…" Fawful started, "You had the respects for Fawful and his wishing." His mind called back to when he tried to open Cackletta's door without permission, how there was a moment of tension between them as he respectfully backed off after being asked. His mind also flickered back to the moment earlier today, where he had then asked if he could enter the room. Peasley nodded his head in understanding as Fawful continued. "Also, you had the taking care of Fawful, bringing him food. Even if…" Fawful chuckled for a second before he said, "Fawful lied about liking limes…" Peasley's eyes widened and in a sort of joking tone he said, "I knew it!" And shoved Fawful's shoulder a little, he then laughed in a more awkward tone and said, "Ah...but...continue." Fawful didn't actually mind the little shove, it brightened his spirits a little. "Well...Fawful also noticed that you took your time with Fawful. You had not the rushing him." Peasley didn't mind waiting for him, and the moment that came to mind was their meeting a week or two ago. Goodness, had it really been that soon? Fawful couldn't help but feel like he had gone through a year of events, enough to last him a lifetime and a half. Nevertheless, he remembered how Peasley gave him the time to respond, even if he was stuttering worse than a slow computer. "And finally, Fawful did not receive any of the stabbing, that is always having goodness to Fawful." Peasley's serious face broke out into a smile and then a snort before he started laughing a bit. 

As much as he meant that last one as a joke, he placed his hand on his stomach where the small scar was. Where he had been stabbed by Peasley's sword ten years ago. Peasley himself noticed how Fawful was grabbing at his stomach and asked, "Oh, are you really hungry this soon? Well- I suppose we didn't have lunch did we? Well perhaps Mid-" and then he froze, like something in his head clicked at that very moment. He looked at Fawful with a bit of sincerity and asked, "Is...the place I struck you still there?" Fawful looked up at Peasley, almost surprised he cared, but with all he just said, he didn't see that as the case for long. He took his hand away from his stomach and nodded his head. "Yes...but...it has had the going awayness for a while now. It has only the appearance of a scratch now." Peasley looked pleasantly surprised by this and said, "Oh good! I didn't mean for it…" Peasley's mouth was tugged into a frown, he spoke with a calm voice and said, "Look Fawful. I'm sorry things turned out the way they did. As your playmate when we were little, it was hard to do what I needed." Fawful blinked for a second before looking at a few stones on the ground "Fawful thinks...he has okayness with it now. Do not have the worrying." Fawful's eyes widened in shock, processing the last part of his sentence. "Pl- wait! Playmate?!" Fawful had no recognition of any childhood friends, so this came as quite the kick in the teeth in terms of how much he expected it.

Peasley turned to Fawful and said, "Do you really not remember?" "No!" Fawful quickly retorted. Peasley leaned back a little and said, "Well no wonder! I know we were both about four or five, maybe you were five, but I distinctly remember one of my first memories being about playing games with you." Now it was Fawful's turn for his mouth to go agape. "Why was Fawful in the castle? Had he not had mother by his side?" Peasley shook his head and closed his eyes to try and remember for a moment. "I think...perhaps… I think she was a part of the council at one point…" Peasley's silence hung in the air for a moment before he snapped his fingers and said, "Yes! I remember mom telling me that I wasn't going to see you again when I was about six. Yeah!" Fawful couldn't believe this. While it was information he wished he would have received sooner by Cackletta herself, it felt odd nonetheless. It was something he could've gone his whole life not knowing, and seeing as he probably only had a few days, this could've been the case. "Fawful...had no idea!" Peasley shook his head and said, "I thought you would've, seeing as you're three months older than me." Peasley scratched his head a little and said, "February...15th right? Sorry, it's been a while." Fawful shook his head no and said, "February 10th." He had been told he was born on Stardust fields too, quite an odd place for any Beanish baby, that was certain. "Ah, okay." Peasley responded, "I'll make sure I remember this time alright?" Fawful seemed quite pleased with this answer and nodded his head before he heard Midbus from the inside of the home. "You two done? Because I think I've got some stellar bean sandwiches on the table." Fawful succumbed to a little giggle before he said, "Fawful is having his arrival soon!" Peasley looked at Fawful with a pure sincerity in his eyes, so strong that he had been able to read it perfectly. "Hey Fawful, thanks for this chat. I think we both needed it."


	32. Be Still My Beating Heart

Fawful never quite had such a good dinner before. There wasn’t anything special about the food being served, but the people there who made it taste inexplicably better. It was just simple little peanut butter sandwiches, yet the banter between friends made it taste like a five star meal, unlike anything else Fawful ever had. Going to bed was hard for him though, as they all treated it like it was the last time they would ever speak again. He didn’t like the possibility of that being true, no one would, really. Fawful noticed a deep worry in both of their eyes, and it put a pit in his stomach as he changed into his pajamas and looked at his bed for a moment. He looked down at his shirt and took in the fact that he hadn’t grown all that much since he turned fourteen. It was weird to think that he had been wearing these pajamas for about half his life, and it hadn’t lost a single thread. Fawful wondered, just for a moment, if Cackletta placed an enchantment on his clothes so it wouldn’t fall apart. It seemed like a silly notion until he thought about how much his cloak went through. Then, his mind went still for a moment. He walked over to the closet, that of which still had seven pairs of day clothes, and plucked his cloak from inside of it.

Fawful wrapped the cloak around his body, and for a moment, he felt as if his mother came down to give him a hug. He closed his eyes, remembering the journey this item had all throughout his life. It had been his baby blanket, and the one thing that he hung onto as a toddler. It was a superhero cape when he was a child, and ran all around the house, jumping on furniture and fighting monsters of his imagination. Fawful had a hard time attempting to let it go, and one day when he came out of his room from inventing, he discovered that Cackletta turned it into a cloak for him. He had been so happy that day, when he put it on for the first time. He had even worn it on his eighteenth birthday, the last birthday he spent with his mother. Fawful’s reminiscing came to a cold end however, as his mouth turned to a frown and he recalled that he had ditched his cloak for his flight suit and tucked the cloak away inside of his clothes. It hurt remembering how he didn’t even wear his most prized possession the day she died. Fawful opened his eyes and shook his head. He didn’t want to remember any further. Life after that just felt like a decade of struggles, until now at least.

Fawful stepped into bed, cloak still holding him like a baby being cradled, and listened to his friends murmurs through the wall as he was guided to sleep. The simple wonder plucked at his mind for a moment, asking why he never heard Cackletta in there before, but he drifted off before he could even consider it for very long.

………….

Fawful opened his eyes and found himself in what seemed to be a labyrinth. He heard multiple sets of footsteps coming from other hallways and he picked himself up and looked at the cobblestone scenery that made up this complex. There were a plethora of hallways and openings to go through, but Fawful entered the one right in front of him, and continued walking without a thought to it. At first, there weren’t many paths that he could see and go down, but occasionally, he would see a window, and look through it as he passed by, seemingly unable to stop walking even for a moment. The vision through the windows felt foggy, but he could almost swear he saw himself walking on another path through the windows. Then, he came to his first decision in what felt like years. There were three paths, One held a ball usually played with by small children, the next was a pile of beginners spellbooks, clearly meant for someone much younger than he, and finally, there were sticks, something Fawful had long identified as building materials. He went towards the tunnel with sticks, and picked them up, twisting them into a horrible recreation of Cackletta, before he took it with him down the tunnel. As Fawful continued picking tunnels, he noticed not only how the amount of tunnels got bigger as he reached them, but also, how he was doing things with the objects that he had already done once before. It took him a moment, but he realized that he wasn’t deviating or doing anything new, he was fine with the choices that he made. Some parts of the tunnels twisted and seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to what it looked like. He watched as the halls slowly got color, and how after some choices, the walls would look decrepit, or as if the labyrinth was trying to destroy itself.

Fawful spent what seemed as if a lifetime passing him by as he walked through the labyrinth until he reached a strange room. Once he entered, he saw a heart, pulsing and beating at a casual rate. Fawful wondered for a second, if his heart was beating at the same rate. He put his hand up to his heart, and felt a wave of surrealism wash over him as he noticed how they were beating at the same rate. The pulse in his body quickened at this and the giant heart in front of him followed suit. Then, as his short spurt of panic took over for a second, he saw how there were black veins in the heart, and how they glowed and sent pain through him. He closed his eyes as he fell to his knees, clutching his heart and watching as the few veins started to cause him pain. His heart got faster as he watched the veins grow brighter and the giant heart beat faster. He looked up in his pain and noticed that there was a giant crack in the wall on the other side of the room. There was no other exit in the room, and something told him this was his only chance. He felt hope race through him along with adrenaline as he ignored his pain for as long as he could, just long enough to sprint to the other side of the room. His life depended on it. 

As he reached the wall, he began trying to tear at it with everything he had, but nothing was budging. His breaths grew frantic as he continued attempting to tear at it with all his might, the black glow from behind him visible on the walls in front of him now. Tears welled up in his eyes as he opened his mouth that shriled a cry that begged for anything, anyone, to listen, “HELP!!” he was almost about to give up, until he heard voices on the other side, more familiar than anything that had graced his ears before. There were two people, he could tell that, and they were getting closer. He called out again, wishing for anything to save him now. “PLEASE!!! HELP!” Fawful felt quick thudding in the ground grow closer. The two people on the other side of the wall were speaking to him, but he had no idea what they were saying. He began tearing at the wall again, and almost as if they needed no instruction, they two began attacking the wall. Fawful finally felt pieces come off, he kept pulling off bigger and bigger chunks until finally, a deep voice told him to stand back. Fawful stepped aside from the crack in the wall, and took a peek at the giant heart, beating as it was the only thing keeping him alive. His head turned back fast enough to see a giant pink fist, dotted with light blue speckles, strike through the wall as an opening crumbled through. It was Midbus’ fist, and Peasley was standing right at his side. 

Fawful didn’t hesitate, as he ran straight for his new future.


	33. Teetering On The Edge

Fawful woke up feeling a giant hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him conscious. Fawful groaned quietly as his best friend continued to poke at him. "Hey...Fawful. Wake up. You're still there right…?" There was a shocking amount of sadness in his tone that called Fawful from the depths of his slumber. He couldn't stand hearing Midbus like this. Fawful turned over towards him, trying to wake up as his eyes slowly blinked and his friend breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh good…" Midbus looked to the door for a second and said, "C'mon, we think we found something." Midbus didn't wait for much of an answer, and as Fawful was rubbing his eyes, Midbus grabbed the glasses on the nightstand, placed them on Fawful's face, and picked Fawful up, rushing into the room while Fawful felt bewildered having already been rushed somewhere as soon as he woke up. This certainly was what got him up, had Midbus' concerns not done the job well enough. Midbus stepped carefully into Cackletta's room, where a very exhausting looking Peasley sat with a couple of books in front of him. They hadn't gone through all of them, but he had already gone through a good bit of them, and he held his hand in one book in particular to keep the spot. Peasley yawned for a moment and blinked slowly before he said, "Glad you could join us. We think we found something."

Midbus carefully put Fawful down, and let him stand on his own before Fawful asked, "What? Whating have you had the locating?" Peasley opened up the book and drew his finger down the lines of text before his eyes recognized a line and he tapped it on the page. "It says here that...the Dark Star gets weaker in the presence of love. It doesn't specify what kind though..." Fawful felt a tremble go down his spine for a second, he had never really fallen in love with anyone, and he hadn't been planning to ever. Peasley looked up at him and said, "I wish it specified more, because it could mean love between family or even a pet and it's owner. Hey! It could even mean loving a food for all we know!" Peasley drew from a sort of cynical attitude that was quite off beat from what Fawful had seen before. Midbus had to shake Peasley's shoulder for a second to get him to even realize that this wasn't at all appropriate at the moment. Peasley looked surprised for a second and said, "Eh? Sorry I just. I haven't slept yet…" he turned his head, embarrassed from his own comment he made not even a second ago and continued reading from the book once he had wiped his eyes a bit. "It also says...um… That it feeds off the negativity of the host, so...uh…" Peasley had to close his eyes and rub his head for a second, he really was this tired. 

"I'm thinkin… " Peasley started again, "We could starve it out? Does that make sense?" Fawful thought about it for a second. He would just have to remain happy? But for how long? He couldn't be happy forever, that was a fact, and what if he ran out of things that made him happy? What if his nightmares came back? He could feel his heart in his chest pulsing faster as his mind began to panic. The pain in his heart picked up. The two friends looked at their friend, who hadn't responded to a word of this, and started calling his name. The room became a mix of two different people's concerns while the third was quickly losing his grip on reality. The pain held him closer and closer, and pricked at his skin like a cactus. His breathing getting more scared before the two friends stood up. They were both yelling for him now, and he was getting noticeably pale from all that was going on. One second, he had been standing perfectly fine, but in the next, the pain took over, Fawful collapsed on the floor, prompting the friends to run over, both calling for him at the same time. "FAWFUL!" They both cried, Peasley lifting him up, and Midbus picking Fawful up.

His breathing was rapid, and his heart was beating out of his chest, threatening to burst at any second. Fawful was trembling from head to toe as his body was giving a final bout to the monster that fed on him inside of his own skin. "Mid...sley…" he said, mustering any strength he had as his body was slowly going limp, unable to hold himself up any longer. Midbus called out to him, hugging him tight as he got on his knees. "Yes Fawful? We're here! We're here Fawful!" Peasley gave Fawful a hug from behind as Fawful felt drips of liquid hit his cloak and bleed through on him. "It's okay...you're going to be okay Fawful…!" Fawful wasn't certain if this was true. His body felt so feverish, yet so cold at the same time, it wasn't because of Midbus however. It was as if his own body was producing this chill. Words became mute as the world around him grew fuzzy around the edges and he felt like this time, he wasn't going to make it. He could barely feel his friends any longer and his head was hardly making any coherent thoughts. Fawful felt a slight fear rise as he closed his eyes in the act of blinking, fearing that he would never open them again. His body was fighting, but it was so tired. So tired of all this constant war, trials, tribulations, and pain it had been enduring in the past weeks, and no matter how much he wanted to continue living, his body was ready to throw in the towel. Once again, his mind and body are at a disagreement, one that couldn't be worked out.

Fawful closed his eyes, and opened them in a white landscape, the completely blank one that called back a familiar, yet foriegn feeling. Was he asleep? Was he still alive? Had the Dark Star finally won? He couldn't tell. Out of what he did know, he felt his heart beating. He couldn't move. He blinked again, and he was back in the room with Midbus and Peasley, and their eyes were bulging out of their faces. Fawful looked at himself for a second and saw his skin turning from a deep black back into its normal color. He still had fight in him, it was very weak, but it was holding on. Peasley was the first one to talk, "We need to take him to a hospital, we need to go, we need to go NOW." Midbus held onto Fawful tightly as he was regaining his vision and feeling in his body. They began to run out of the house and, Fawful without a clue where they might go, wrapped a shaking arm around Midbus' shoulder. He clung to him how a child might do with their parent, and as Midbus ran with Peasley to find a doctor, he looked down at Fawful with a sense of pity. It looked odd to Fawful, because for a moment, he swore he saw a glimmer of hope accompany it. "Hey little buddy…?" He said as he ran. "We love you alright?" For a moment, Midbus was all Fawful heard, before Peasley spoke up, "Fawful we love you, please hang on! There were so many other things we planned to do with you!" Midbus continued on, "Y-yeah! We were going to help build things with you, maybe more sword training? Please Fawful." They were both speaking with such desperation that warmed the very core of Fawful, and somewhere in him, he felt something die.

Fawful lost consciousness in Midbus' arms.

He could rest now.


	34. Pulse

The sound of beeping wouldn’t stop resounding. It was like an alarm clock, calling Fawful to wake up. He had to wake up, he just had to. His mind was blaring with a dim alarm, calling his head to consciousness, that beeping got louder and louder, and went at a continuous pace that was oddly comforting, like if it was the only thing grounding him into reality. His first thought that came to mind as he soaked in his dreamlike state asked him a very calm question. ‘Are you ready to open your eyes?’. It spoke in his own voice, a comfort that Fawful hadn’t had for a while now. In fact, it hadn’t happened in such a long time, that it made him shiver for a moment. It was such a familiar yet lost feeling, that had finally come back. It was one of the greatest comforts Fawful felt in a long time. Gripping his mind more into reality, he answered his own question. ‘Yes’. Fawful could hear himself breathing, accompanied by the beeping and something tapping against a hardwood floor. He felt the soft veil of a blanket covering him along with something attached to his chest. Fawful opened his eyes, and opened the curtains to the truth of where he was.

First, his bleary eyes caught sight of white walls, then a white blanket covering him, and finally, a white hospital gown he had been wearing. Fawful lifted up the blanket a little, to look at what was on his chest, and although it took him a second, he discovered that he had been hooked up to a few machines. He turned to his right, and he saw three chairs, they were empty but it wasn’t hard to tell someone had sat there, at least in the first two. While the third one to the left was completely straight and against the wall, the other two had shifted in some way, the one in the middle even looking like it was almost broken from getting crushed. He turned his head slightly to his side, and saw the source of the beeping. It was a heart monitor, and it was also the only thing making noise in the room. However, Fawful began to hear chattering from outside the room getting closer. The small shaking of the things in the room brought a faint smile to his face, and he had never been so happy in his life to feel such a familiar tremble in the ground. It stopped at his door, and Fawful knew for certain who it was now. A short sound slipped out of his mouth, a slight giggle, he could feel his pep slowly funneling back in.

The door came open and entered the doctor before either of the two guests that Fawful was quite excited to see. Fawful had to think about it for a second, but he could’ve sworn that this doctor was the same as before, Dr. Lentil. She was writing something down on a clipboard and looked up for a second to see Fawful, before double taking and letting out a short gasp as she said, “Oh! You’re up?” Her surprise was quite visible on her face, but Fawful didn’t pay much mind to it as he watched Peasley rush in along with Midbus, who as usual, had to be careful not to damage the door. He wasn’t quite made for the Beanbean kingdom, but it felt great to see him never complain about it, and how he always seemed to have Fawful’s health in mind. “Fawful?!” Peasley called, which was called shortly by an extremely enthusiastic, “Bud…?!” from Midbus that simply put a smile on his face. Peasley was in disbelief and joy, the kind that covered him like how a warm blanket would cover a child. “Fawful,” he started, “We thought you died! We...we thought…” Peasley was shaking as tears filled his eyes and he couldn’t manage to speak. Midbus had to pick up where he left off, “We thought...you were gone forever.” there was an impalpable amount of sadness in his voice that made Fawful almost seem to grasp the feelings that those two had been going through. Almost at least, he got an idea of it.

Fawful found his strength a lot easier than he had before, and sat up, asking a question that had been tugging at his mind for a while now. “Why…? Why did you have the caring for Fawful?” The two looked shocked by his question, and Midbus had been the first one to answer, Peasley still slack jawed from the question alone. “Because we’re your FRIENDS Fawful! We love you,” Peasley followed him up, taking a step towards Fawful. “We know you did some horrible things, and even if I can never find it in me to justify it, I know why, Midbus probably already knew for some time, I'd guess, but you gave me the chance to help you. Fawful, you let me help you. You could’ve persisted and shut the door on me completely, shoving my foot out of the way of course, and I would’ve listened, but you didn’t. You let me in, and gave me that chance. I think from that moment I had a feeling. A feeling that there was more to you than a weird guy who talks about sandwiches and fink rats.” Peasley started laughing at the end there, and smiled as he started speaking again, “I think you wanted to change. Whether you knew it or not at the time of us meeting at the tree.” Those words spoke to Fawful, right down to his soul, he felt so touched. Fawful rubbed his eye for a moment and only then did he notice he had started crying. He couldn’t really handle this kind of praise. “Oh...well...Fawful has the thanking of you…”

“Besides,” Midbus started, “You turned completely black for a moment. I don’t know much about Beanish biology, but I know plants don’t just turn black in a matter of seconds.” Fawful’s joy was somewhat stopped by this new fact momentarily. “Huh?” Midbus nodded his head and said, “Yeah, it was...really scary to watch you do that.” Midbus took a deep breath and said, “I think I saw your eyes turn red for a second too. The moment you looked normal again, that was the moment we decided to take you to the hospital.” Fawful didn’t have a chance to respond, because at that moment, Dr. Lentil stepped in and said, “Yeah, I may need to run the x-ray test on you, just for that. So if you all are done talking, I’m going to have to ask you two,” she looked to Midbus and Peasley, “to leave the room while I get him all checked out.” The three boys exchanged glances between one another and they didn’t need any words to travel between them. “We’ll go ahead and leave.” Peasley said. “We’ll be waiting right outside the door alright?” Fawful nodded his head, giving them the okay as the two of them left, Midbus giving Fawful a thumbs up as he made his way out.

“Alright, let's get the big one out of the way, the magic x-ray.” She opened the door and pulled it through the doorway, Fawful figured that she was probably prepared to do this ahead of time. She put it in place in the room and shut the door, gesturing Fawful to come along and step behind it. Fawful had a lot less trouble reaching it this time as he did before, and didn’t need her help to get there, stepping behind it like it was nothing. “Okay, keep still.” she said before clicking a button on the x-ray machine and looking down at her clipboard while it took a picture and analyzed it. Once the picture was finished, she looked up for a second at the x-ray and then back down at her clipboard, before Fawful then heard the drop of a pencil. “Oh...my...goodness..:” She said. “What?” Fawful said, afraid of the news he might receive. She kept quiet for a second and whispered in incredulity, “It’s gone…” Fawful almost thought he didn’t hear her right, but before he could ask again she said. “The Beanstar itself must’ve blessed you, oh my goodness it’s gone!” Fawful wasn’t certain how to answer this. What was this? Godly intervention? But why? Why him? Why would anything much more powerful than him save him?

Then, it hit him. It was love. Love had saved him. It was the one thing that the Dark Star had been trying to rip from him, and time and time again he managed to get it from his two closest friends. Fawful pressed his hand against his chest to feel the pulse for just a second. Never in his life had a normal heartbeat brought so much joy in his system. “We’re going to have to keep you here for one more night,” Dr. Lentil started, “Just to make sure it doesn’t spring up again in any way, but take a nap or something, you deserve it.” Fawful made his way back to his bed as the Doctor left the room to inform the other two of the news. He felt light on his feet and a freedom in his heart. Never in his life, as he laid down, had he felt so comfortable to sleep in perhaps years. It was okay. Everything was going to be all okay

He had won his final battle, he could rest now.


	35. Who You Will Be

Fawful found himself lying in a large field of pink carnations. For a moment, all he could do was stare at the flowers around him, and the sky above. He almost had to squint, it was so bright out and his eyes had barely adjusted to it all that it was painful for a few seconds. However, the land around him was so peaceful, and as the breeze flowed through the flowers, he heard a voice that had been all too far away from him the whole time. "Come along Fawful, your mother has to have a word with you." It snapped him right out of his relaxation, and he rose into a sitting position, just barely able to look over the flowers to see Cackletta standing off to the right of him. He just sat there, bug eyed, looking at his mom, without any belief at what he was looking at. The two held each other's glances for a moment before Cackletta smiled and said, "Well? Come on now, stand up." And almost as if on command, he rose to his feet. Cackletta's face was kind and old, not quite how Fawful had remembered her, but it didn't make the rise of joy he got from watching her face turn into a smile any less bubbly or excited.

"Great Cac- M-mom?" Fawful said, unable to believe his eyes. He rushed up to his mom and gave her a hug. He could feel her hand brushing over his head, petting him as she whispered, "There there...it's over now. You have no reason to stress." Fawful had forgotten how soft her robe felt, and how it reminded him of a teddy bear in a way. Cackletta was the first one to break the silence between the both of them. "Even if I can't be here for you any longer, know that I'm always," she poked a finger where his heart would be. "Right there." Fawful felt tears whelm up in his eyes as he looked, frozen in place as he tried to speak to Cackletta, "B-but...mother…". She didn't stop in place, instead, she let go from the hug, plucked a carnation off it's stem and handed it over to Fawful. "Whenever you feel alone, just know I'm still here, and I won't leave you." Fawful felt the soft petals in his hands as he stroked the flower a little. "But…Fawful has failed you! And now he is...not of having the interests for revenge…" she shook her head and said, "This is your life, not mine. It's okay to let go. Just let go."

"Just let go."

………….

"Hey, hey Fawful! Wake up!" Fawful had felt his shoulder get gently tugged as the Prince's voice was asking him to rise. "Hmm...what..?" Fawful mumbled as his eyes slowly came open. The room wasn't quite as bright as his dream, but it was still hard to see a bit in this white room. Fawful lifted himself up and sat up straight on the bed. He could see Peasley and Midbus in the room, with perhaps the two brightest smiles he'd ever seen in his life. "Hey…" Peasley started, his face simply beaming, Midbus having to finish the sentence for him, saying, "We heard about news little bud." Peasley's smile was so wide as he shut his eyes and laughed for a second, before opening them back up and offering Fawful a hug. "We were so worried about you…" Fawful accepted the hug, and Peasley tightly held him, sniffling for a second as Fawful swore he felt tears falling on his clothes. "You've got to promise not to scare us like that again!" Midbus chuckled for a second before he said "Knowing him, not sure we can guarantee that." It was a joke of course, and one that brought a smile to Fawful's face as well. "Fawful has the promising." He said softly, patting Peasley's back a bit, albeit a little awkwardly, with just a few back pats, but it got his point across.

Peasley released Fawful from his hug and said, "You're not allowed to mess with ancient powers any longer, that's an order from the Prince himself!" There was a hint of exhaustion in his voice with a spring of joy at the end there, and seeing Peasley's face now, it was true, he had shed at least a few tears. Midbus stepped forward a little, being careful with his steps as he eyed a few fragile items before he turned back to Fawful and said, "The doctors said you're allowed to head home, you've just got to return the clothes at the front once you change into something else." Midbus thought for a second before he said, "A doctor should be here in a moment to get you those." Midbus once again took very intentionally soft steps, opening the door to take his leave and went through, Peasley followed behind but stopped at the door and said, "Oh! Meet us in the lobby, you know how mo- _The Queen,"_ He quickly corrected himself, "Is having you live in a home near the castle to make sure you're not up to anything? Well the home just got ready. I was informed to take you there with Midbud." Fawful nodded his head prompting Peasley to go off and take his leave. A new home. Fawful wondered for a second what it would be like to have a place in the kingdom. 

He supposed that it wouldn't be very long until he found out.


	36. Home Is Where The Heart Is

Later that day when Fawful was let out of the hospital, Midbus and Peasley walked him to his new home within the city. Fawful hadn't quite paid attention to his surroundings, so he couldn't tell if people were commenting or not, but he walked with a certain spring in his step and a smile on his face. The world just felt so quiet for him as he was so excited and anxious for a new beginning and what this meant for him. He may not have any clue what waited for him there, but he was soon to find out. Peasley pointed down a lane and Midbus looked over in that direction as the Prince said, "Down that way, we're almost there." Fawful was snapped out of his focus for a moment, and sound settled in as if it had never been there before. Lifting his head up a bit, he noticed that Peasley had a map. It raised quite a silly question, one that he hadn't considered or taken note of before. "Peasley? Why are you having the map?" Peasley looked up from the map for a second and laughed, "Well, admittedly, I have a bit of trouble remembering directions… we're lucky we got out of that forest the correct way the first time we left for the kingdom if I'm going to be honest." Fawful's mind stopped for a moment, how had he not noticed that? It wasn't quite important anymore, but it did poke at Fawful's mind a bit.

"Yeah," Midbus commented, "and I've had to guide you every other time." He shoved Peasley in a friendly manner as he couldn't help but chuckle himself. After a few minutes of silence and continued walking, Peasley folded up the map and pointed towards a small home that was definitely close to where the castle was. In fact, there was even a window, from what Fawful could see, that had a view of the castle itself. He felt a little odd thinking like this, but Fawful wondered if this was similar to having next door, or in this case, across the street. "Alright, here we are!" Peasley said as he put the map away and walked towards the door. He reached his hand towards the doorknob but held back, he recoiled a bit and said, "Ah, you two should probably get a look at a first yeah? It's where you'll both be living isn't it?" Peasley took a couple steps back and allowed for Fawful to approach the door. There was almost an overwhelming amount of fear he got from this simple action that it was almost ridiculous. There wasn't anything beyond that door that could hurt him, and yet this felt like a massive change. He wanted to reach towards the future, but he was scared to leave the past behind. But as he grabbed the knob and turned it, he held for a moment, and the wise words of someone near and dear eased him.

"Just let go."

And this was the push he needed to open the door. Inside, what could be assumed to be a living room was quite barren. There was a table and a few chairs. Fawful could see an opening to a kitchen that had much more inside from what he could see at the door and a room next to it which Fawful assumed to be a bedroom. He took his first steps into the home and soaked it all in without a word. Midbus came in next, with a little trouble entering the door as usual, but being just as speechless. Finally, in came Peasley, he turned on the lights for the room and watched them look around. Fawful went towards the bedroom and saw a twin bed in the left corner of the room next to a nightstand with a lamp on top of it. There was a work table at the front of the room, that already had several mechanical parts strewn across in orderly piles. He went straight towards them and examined them with consideration and couldn't help but feel that while they weren't the best, they were definitely of decent quality. 

"Midbus? Peasley?" He called to them, he heard a few yeses in the other room and then said, "Can you please have the coming of over here?" The two arrived and watched for a second as Fawful continued to look at the parts, putting them down as tears dotted his eyes and started to fall down his face. "Thank you…" he mumbled quietly. Fawful turned around and looked up at both of them, crying as a smile fell on his face. "Fawful has so much of the thanks for both of you…" Midbus opened his arms and said, "Aww, come here little bud." Fawful slowly went over to hug Midbus as he continued to sniffle. Midbus held him up and was about to speak before Fawful continued. "And...and...you both had the believing in Fawful… and you wanted him safe…" his words started to get incomprehensible to understand as Fawful's crying got harder and harder, "Fawful loves you both...so much…" Peasley joined in the hug and pressed his forehead against Fawful's back. "We love you too Fawful, you're the greatest friend a bean could have." "A pig too." Midbus added, with a soft laugh and pressed his head against Fawful's shoulder.

The group continued to cry tears of joy together for their triumph. There might've been troubles for them in the future, but that wasn't on their minds. They were thinking of how the future would bring joy. Fawful could show them how to make machines, Peasley could teach them sword fighting, and Midbus could show them all how to cook. It was a future of possibilities now that the world had opened up for Fawful.

And for once, he was willing to step forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone who helped me make this story and support me all the way through. This is my first passion project I've ever seen to fruition and I don't think I could've done it without the love and ideas I've made when talking with other people, and for that, I'm thankful.
> 
> Thank you so much for the support, and I'll see you all when my next passion project begins.


End file.
